Fate, Book ?: Tortured Soul
by ProAJ13
Summary: What do you do when you lose nearly everything you had? When you lose the one you loved with all your heart? When you lose your home? When you wake up in an unknown place? He had been through this once before, but he hadn't lost someone he loved. Now he has. How do you cope with that? Pretend to be fine? Cry? Blame and curse the world? Hope? (M for cursing, sexual themes, blood.)
1. Enter A New World

**Some of you might not like that it went to this crossover, some of you might like it. Rather you like it or not, this is where it's going, and this is where it will be for an unknown (to you) amount of time.**

 **Also, the intro will first appear at the start of chapter 2.**

 **Let us begin, we have a long way to go and things won't get really hectic for awhile.**

* * *

The Plus One of Squad 7 Ch.1

* * *

"Speech" (I may change canon dialogue somewhat if I feel like it.)

'Thought' (It's the OC's thought unless it says otherwise.)

* * *

It happened again.

It was pretty obvious to AJ not a moment after he woke up.

He blinked, and found he was on his side lying in the grass.

'Just like when I woke up on Remnant.' He thought.

This time he was in a clearing in a forest instead of a random point in the forest. Something was different this time though, it felt like there was a gap in time between the last moment he remembers and the moment he is in now. Last time it felt like no time had passed, now it felt like he was missing something… an event probably.

He stood up and looked around, it looked like a nice and peaceful area. He noticed something close by that clearly wasn't natural.

An area was flattened out and had tile or some sort of brick for a floor in a circle shape and there was an oddly shaped smooth stone in the middle. There were names written on it in a language that AJ couldn't hope to read. It looked a lot like Japanese and he briefly wondered if he was back on Earth. There was a flag pole right next to this memorial looking rock and there was a slight sense of emotion lingering here. He could only feel emotion lingering if it was there often and if it was a strong emotion, and what he felt made it clear the words written and the way they were spaced apart, they were names. These people had no doubt died in some tragedy and the names are all written here, the emotions are what really gave it away. It felt like a lot of people came here to mourn, and had done so for years.

His emotion sense gave away a more current emotion nearby, it didn't matter what it was, just mattered that it was there. Someone was watching him.

"Can I help you?" AJ asked and made sure to look where he sensed the emotion so this person knew that he knew that they were there. The person stepped out from the bush and approached him, he seemed carefree but AJ could feel the caution.

His hair was close to the same color as Ozpin's, but it was very spikey and kind of stood up high on one side. He had a mask that covered the bottom half of his face but he also wore a headband and had it hang down on one end and block his left eye, only his right eye or the upper right side of his face in general was visible which was a little bit intimidating. He had a dark blue (I am bad at distinguishing color so it might be purple for all I know) long sleeved shirt on with fingerless gloves of the same color. His pants were the same as well but he also had some sort of bandage wrapped on his right thigh. Did I mention the mask was the same color as the shirt and pants? He also had a green vest on over all this that looked a bit like Kevlar but it might not be, hard to tell. The vest had compartments on his chest that finished off the look that this guy was armed, probably a soldier, but what kind?

"No, but you could explain why you just appeared in a flash of light. Is that teleportation Jutsu?" The masked man asked.

"I don't suppose you would believe that I came from another world?" AJ asked, not really in the mood to deal with making up stories.

"I don't know. Why should I? Do you have any proof?" The man asked.

"Well… in the world I just came from we had something called Aura." AJ said nonchalantly and let out his Aura. The man showed little reaction and was carefully examining the white mist flowing off him.

"Alright, what's Aura?" The man asked.

"In the world I came from, called Remnant, Aura is the physical manifestation of our soul. With training it acts as a shield that surrounds our bodies, or at the very least it speeds recovery of any wound. By the way, what are Jutsu?" AJ asked the man.

"You don't know what Jutsu are? Well that's kind of a lot to explain to someone who supposedly knows nothing of our world." The man said and put a hand to his chin and thought for a minute. "I would need more time than I really care to use right now. Anything else to prove you just came from another universe?" He asked.

"Um…" AJ thought for a minute. "Oh! I have this!" AJ pointed at the object he now held. "It's called a Scroll! It's a piece of technology that comes from Remnant." He went to his pictures and showed a few pictures of various Grimm and explained how Grimm and pure evil creatures that attack humanity and area attracted to negative emotion. "I don't suppose your world has anything evil like this?"

"No, nothing like that. Well it seems like your story _might_ be true…" The masked man started.

"In the end, the truth doesn't need to be believed to be the truth, or it might be a lie, but I really have no reason to lie, and come on! It's not like your world has anything like this!" AJ said pointing at the Scroll before putting it away to preserve the battery, luckily it has a solar cell that should be able to charge it.

"Well… you could be a spy and be a danger to our village so I'm inclined to be safe and not believe you…"

"Same thing happened in the last world I was in and the guy let me in any way! Then again I was injured and so they took me in and healed me…" AJ said the last part to himself.

"Well it doesn't feel like you're lying."

"Wait, really?"

"And if you truly know nothing of this world then someone will have to take you through some serious history classes… Someone has to help you, so I suppose I will take you to the village and see what we can do, how's that?" The man asked.

"YES! Thank you! You seem like a nice guy and I do really need help being stuck in a new world again so I would love your help! So um… what village are we going to?" AJ asked after calming down.

"The Village Hidden in the Leaves, also known as the Hidden Leaf Village. What is your name by the way?" He asked.

"Oh, well when I woke up in the last world I kind of forgot my name. I actually still don't know what my name is anymore, I remember everything else except for my name. I do remember that I go by AJ, but that's all I got." AJ explained.

"Well you need a longer name than just AJ… you also need a clan name, we can't really stick you in any known clans because you have no record…" The man explained.

"Well, what if we say that I was found abandoned and raised by someone else so they don't know what clan I was in and therefore don't have a clan name? Is that how it works with clans?" AJ asked.

"It could work… Come on, let's head over to the village. Our leader will want to see you."

"Oh! What is your name by the way sir?" AJ asked.

The man looked over his shoulder and with his one visible eye looked at AJ.

"Kakashi Hatake."

"Well hello Kakashi." AJ greeted.

"We'll call you Shin, which means true. Because your story better be true or I'm going to have to have the Anbu interrogate you. Assuming your story is true, you have a lot of history and training to go through. Actually, speaking of training…" Kakashi said and stopped walking. "We should see how good of a fighter you are." He got in a stance and AJ did as well. AJ relaxed his Aura as to not go to crazy with this spar.

"Wait, but I could really hurt you since you don't have Aura and I do." AJ said concerned about hurting the first person he meets in this world.

"Well, let's try some simple sparing and not use any blades." Kakashi suggested.

AJ nodded and didn't pull out his sword.

"Shinobi Battle Techniques, Part One: Taijutsu, Hand to Hand combat. The physical part basically." Kakashi said before charging at AJ with a simple punch.

AJ blocked the punch and tried for one of his own and Kakashi redirected it and hit AJ in the face before he could even react.

'Wow, this guy is fast. What are Shinobi anyway?'

AJ charged and Kakashi blocked or dodged every punch and kick easily, he was able to get a few strikes on AJ who couldn't move fast enough or just couldn't see the attack coming at all.

AJ let out his Aura to match Kakashi's speed and suddenly AJ was able to get a few hits, Kakashi was holding back though so he was still able to match the speed but the force behind it was a bit harder to manage. The fight went on for about five minutes just trading blows with Kakashi showing incredible speed and reflexes but AJ showing he can keep up decently enough.

AJ went for a punch in the face but Kakashi stopped it completely. AJ tried for a sweeping kick and Kakashi jumped up slightly to avoid it. AJ used the chance to punch him while he was in the air but somehow Kakashi blocked it by catching his fist with his palm. He gripped AJ's arm to flip in midair and go for a kick to the head so AJ jumped away, getting out of Kakashi's grip and avoiding the kick.

Kakashi suddenly jumped away and AJ got the idea that they were supposed to stop fighting for the moment.

"Well done. You aren't that bad with hand to hand, but since we started, you might as well understand exactly how ninja fight." Kakashi said.

'Wait, are shinobi supposed to be ninja!?' AJ thought, surprised that the world he found himself in might be filled with ninjas.

"Shinobi Battle Techniques Number Two: Genjutsu." Kakashi said and performed some odd signs with his hands and AJ suddenly couldn't move.

"Ah!... The… hell?…." AJ grunted as he tried to move to no avail.

Kakashi spoke as he walked towards AJ. "Genjutsu is also known as illusion Jutsu, you can't get out of that. I could have done something much worse to you but was feeling nice so I decided to just immobilize you. Want me to help?" He asked honestly.

"No…. I…. can… get out…" AJ said and started forcing Aura out of his body, more and more Aura until he found himself getting movement back and eventually was able to get free. Kakashi was pleasantly surprised.

"Well done, for someone who is not a Ninja to manage that is no small feat. Now, there is one more thing I need to show you." Kakashi said.

"What? Is there one more part?" AJ asked, getting into a ready stance.

"Yes. Shinobi Battle Techniques: Part Three, Ninjutsu. I hope your Aura can handle this."

Kakashi performed a few hand signs before stopping on one of the signs. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Kakashi said and put one of his hands out in front of him and breathed out causing a stream of fire to shoot out into a large fireball.

'HUH!? HE CAN BREATHE FIRE!' AJ shouted in his head and felt an oddly familiar feeling in his eyes as he saw this large ball of fire coming towards him.

AJ stuck out two fingers in front of him and created a glyph to block the fireball as the rest of the fire spread past him.

When the fire cleared Kakashi saw AJ standing behind a strange floating white circle that had glyphs along the sides of it and a symbol of white wings that touch the edge of the circle in the middle of it. AJ rested his arm at his side and the glyph faded away.

"Well well. You have a few tricks up your sleeve. Is that made possible by your Aura?" Kakashi asked.

"That it is. Though I would love to know how you can suddenly breathe fire." AJ said, eying the masked man and trying to figure out how he did that little magic trick.

"Well that's something that would take awhile to explain. Anyways, I think we're done for now. You certainly are competent enough to fight, but we'll have to train you in deception and the way of the ninja. All we did was fight, I didn't have you hide from me or lay a trap for me or try to trick me, so we will have to work on that later." Kakashi said and they started walking and AJ assumed they were going to the village.

AJ felt a weight on his shoulder and looked to see his brown furred, green and golden eyed cat Neko on his shoulder. This brought up a very important detail that he hadn't realized till now.

"Um… Kakashi?" AJ asked and Kakashi hummed, saying he was listening. "I just noticed that you never commented on the cat ears sticking out of my head or the tail that I had… why haven't you said anything about it?" AJ asked concerned what he would say.

"Well I figured you would explain that when you were ready." Kakashi said simply and kept walking.

"You aren't surprised? You don't think I'm an animal?" AJ asked.

"No… Why? Should I?" Kakashi asked like it was some joke.

"Well, no. It's just that back on Remnant the Faunus aren't treated fairly because of their part animal heritage." AJ explained.

"So these Faunus are part animal huh? Exclusive to the world, just like Grimm then?"

"Well, if there aren't Faunus or Grimm in this world, then ya." AJ answered.

"Well don't worry. I see no reason to call you an animal. You certainly are acting human."

AJ sighed in relief.

They ended up reaching the village. AJ took in the sights as they walked. It really was something of a village, it had buildings a few stories high but it wasn't exactly modern, but it was close. It certainly was nothing like Remnant and all their advanced technology.

They went to the other side of the village and approached a large structure that was sort of cylinder shaped, and behind it was a large cliff with faces carved on it. Kakashi had noticed him looking up at the stone faces.

"Those are the faces of the leaders of our village." Kakashi said. "The first, second, third, and fourth Hokage. The third is the one we are heading to meet, he is going to want to know about a stranger from another world."

Neko meowed and AJ heard his voice. "Wait, the third? Shouldn't the fourth be the current leader?" Neko asked. AJ's eyes widened in realization and he repeated the question to Kakashi.

"Our fourth Hokage sacrificed himself to save the village." Kakashi explained.

"Wow." AJ said in awe. 'So they have the classic hero that sacrificed himself thing. And it was the leader! That sounds so cool! What an interesting scenario to have a previous leader be the current one but since the newest one past away it makes sense.'

Kakashi lead him to the third Hokage and initially he didn't trust AJ, understandably, but the situation of being alone in a new world was explained and evidence was shown along with the being a Faunus thing and eventually the old looking leader allowed AJ to stay with the exception that Kakashi was supposed to keep an eye on him. AJ felt that this Hokage was a good man who wanted to protect his village and AJ said that he would help if he could. The man was also willing to help AJ in his time of need and AJ couldn't thank the man enough for that.

* * *

For the first day AJ was shown around the village and given his own apartment, eventually the day ended and now he knew what Chakra was and could feel it inside of him already. He was definitely gonna practice with it tomorrow!

He took a moment to look in the mirror, his eyes were currently green but such a dull green that they seemed grey. Since Neko was out the cat had the bright green eyes with gold flecks instead of him, but what stood out was the scars he had on the left side of his face. Two marks and one went right over his eye, yet his eye itself seemed undamaged or affected in anyway. Both marks ran straight down his face and stopped before his neck. He felt the cuts to confirm they were real.

"How did my Aura not block this? What even caused this in the first place?" He asked himself though he had no answers.

It was when he lied down that his situation really caught up with him and it was now more than ever that he wished he could just go to sleep and ignore his own thoughts.

He had no one again, he cried when he came to Remnant and lost his good friend and his mom and dad, but he realized he wasn't going anywhere and moved on. He was alone for two months until those two came along… Ruby and Yang… the two half-sisters.

They were fun to be around, they seemed nice, he helped Ruby get through her first encounter with Weiss. Weiss… AJ hated her at first, even now she can still be a bit of a pain but it's just how it is and he really doesn't hate her anymore. He guessed he could even call her a friend.

Then he met Blake…

If he had stayed on Earth, in his own boring little world, he would have been happy with what he did, but was certain he would never be in love. He came to Remnant and immediately fell in love when he saw her. It wouldn't be till the next semester when his thoughts of never being in love are shut down when they both admit they were in love with each other. He admits they did it in a bit of an odd way… but he couldn't be happier with her… and now she was gone…

He would never see her, or the rest of RWBY, or team JNPR, ever again. He was stuck in this world with almost no one again. He had love, something he thought he would never have, and of course with his fucking luck, it was ripped away from him!

It was three months of pain. Three months of trying to get over the fact that he was just gonna be stuck in this world until he left to go to another world. Three months of teaching and training, no social interaction, not that he wanted any. If the pattern kept up he was cursed to go to different dimensions. It was three months of pain, and it wasn't going to stop anytime soon…

It was just his luck after all, why even bother making friends, let alone finding love? He's just gonna get send somewhere else at some point.

He learned about Chakra and how to use it, he learned that his Semblance had changed and now he could learn some Jutsu just by looking at them, which AJ thought was stupidly overpowered but was glad he had it and was glad his Aura sped up his learning ability. He knew how to fight like a ninja, how to move faster than he already did, how to read and write and speak the language of the world, which he was pretty sure was Japanese. But they also spoke English which confused him to no end but so did quite a few things, he just didn't care anymore.

* * *

It was just another day and Kakashi walked into AJ's apartment and found him crying in his sleep again. Kakashi briefly pet the boy and tried to calm him down, 'How does he get any rest?' Kakashi asked himself. When the boy stirred he went back to his usual stance. No one needed to see him showing as much emotion as that, but he couldn't just let the boy cry like that.

"Come on, time to get up." Kakashi said.

"Leave me alone, Kakashi. Just let me sleep, I don't wanna train today." AJ said grumpily and wiped away his tears. Neko got up and stretched.

"You say that every day. Get up." Kakashi said and lifted the boy out of his bed. AJ was too tired to thrash around and struggle.

"Ugh.." AJ grumbled as he got ready for another terrible day.

"There is no training, by the way. I have a meeting, I'm being given a squad of my own, again." Kakashi explained.

"Oh, gonna torture some future Genin now?" AJ said, smiling at the thought of watching Kakashi beat up someone else.

"Oh I have something planned for them." Kakashi said laughing evilly. "Come find me when you are ready and you can watch." Kakashi said before leaving.

AJ sighed. "Alright Neko, another day." He said with no enthusiasm.

"Yep." Neko said and walked over to the door leading out of the apartment and waited for AJ to get ready.

AJ eventually stepped out. He still had his basic black long sleeve and jeans but he also had the vest that most other ninja had as well, like Kakashi for example, over the shirt. He still had his epic cloak even though Kakashi said it would only get in the way. It never got in the way before but he agreed he wouldn't wear it on a mission. He had the kunai pouch on his right leg and he had the grey ninja tool bag on his lower back, he had the headband with the symbol that said he was a Leaf Ninja but that was just a cover so he could blend in. He didn't exactly go through the whole school program after all.

Despite being dressed to head out it was now that he sat down with Neko to eat. He had ramen heated up and got some cat food for Neko and they sat and quietly ate. When they finished, Neko jumped on his shoulder and they walked out and walked through the village for awhile and AJ simply walked around bored. Birds chirping did nothing to lighten his mood these days and Neko always had to try and cheer him up, or at least give him something to do.

"You know we could just train." Neko said.

"I don't wanna train if I don't have too… But I am bored…" AJ thought for awhile. "Well I guess we could see what Kakashi has for a squad." He suggested. Neko nodded and agreed with him so they started walking to the school.

AJ eventually found Kakashi with the three students and hung out a level below them and listened in.

"Ok, your turn. You on the right, you first." Kakashi said and AJ used his emotion sense to in a way "see" where the three are and who is on the right.

"Believe it! I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I like instant ramen in a cup. And I really like the ramen Iruka sensei got me at the Ichiraku noodle shop!"

'Wait, I recognize that voice, and that name… oh god no… it _is_ that kid at Ichiraku…'

"I hate the three minutes you have to wait after you pour the ramen in the ramen cup, and my hobby is eating different types of ramen and comparing them. And my future dream, is to be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and treat me like I'm somebody! Somebody important!" The boy Naruto finished.

'Bold dream you have there kid, I like the reason behind it at least.'

"Alright. Next!" Kakashi said.

"I'm Sakura Haruno!" A girl said. AJ could tell she was the one on the left of the group. "What I like, uh… I mean the person I like is… uh… my hobby is uh… *giggles* my dream for the future is… *fangirls* "

AJ sighs.

"And? What do you hate?" Kakashi asked.

"Naruto!" The girl Sakura shouted and AJ could sense what Naruto felt after that and actually felt bad for the boy.

"Last one." Kakashi ordered.

"My name, Is Sasuke Uchiha. I hate a lot of things, and I don't particularly like anything. What I have is not a dream, because I _will_ make it a reality. I am going to restore my clan, and destroy a certain someone…" The boy in the middle, Sasuke said.

'Gee, someone likes being dramatic as much as me. But that name, Uchiha… did Kakashi really get the last of that clan? Interesting… Wait… why is Naruto scared?'

"Good, you are each unique and you have your own ideas." Kakashi said. "We'll have our first mission tomorrow."

"What kind of mission are we going to have?" Naruto asked.

"It's a task the four of us will do together." Kakashi answered.

"What!? What!? What!?" Naruto asked, excited for a real mission.

"A survival exercise." Kakashi answered.

"Huh!? Survival exercise?" Naruto asked, annoyed.

"I thought we were supposed to have a real mission not more practice!" Sakura complained. "We already did this stuff at the academy, that's how we got here!"

"This is not like your previous training." Kakashi responded.

"So uh… what kind of training is it then?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi gave an obviously evil laugh as a response and it made AJ want to laugh just thinking about what that meant for the kids.

"Hey, hold on. That's a normal question, what's so funny?" Sakura asked, not getting the evil vibe.

"Well, if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it." Kakashi said with a hidden smile and another laugh. "Of the 27 graduates who just came here only 9 will actually be accepted as Genin. The other 18 will be weeded out and sent back to the academy. In other words: This is a make it or break it, pass/fail test and the chance that you'll fail is at least 66%." Kakashi explained.

'HA! Oh he just _loves_ the shock on their faces! I can feel it! Haha!'

"See? Didn't I tell you you wouldn't like it?" Kakashi asked smugly.

"That's crazy! We worked to get here! Believe it! What was the graduation test for anyway?!" Naruto asked.

"Oh that. That was just to select candidates that might become Genin, or not." Kakashi said like it was an everyday thing.

"WHAAAAT!?" Naruto complained.

"That's how it is." Kakashi said harshly. "I decide rather you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at 5AM, and bring your ninja gear." Kakashi warned.

AJ could sense the anger that Naruto was holding in and the determination that it was bringing out. For Sakura it was fear that brought out determination. Sasuke was keeping fairly calm but there was still determination.

"That's it. You're dismissed." Kakashi said, waving them goodbye. "Oh, tomorrow you better skip breakfast or else… you'll puke." He said and once again clearly enjoyed the reaction he got. Okay maybe not "clearly" but it sure was clear for AJ, sensing emotion can be useful at times.

The three kids left, but Kakashi did not.

"You can come up now." Kakashi said to no one in particular.

AJ jumped up from the level below them with Neko still on his shoulder.

"Man you are _cruel_ Kakashi." AJ said, laughing a little.

"I need you to do something for me." Kakashi said finally looking at AJ.

"Huh?! Why!? Ugh… What do you need?" AJ said grumpily.

"I need you to give them each a test throughout the day, see what they can do, give them something to think about before the test tomorrow." Kakashi explained. "Think you can do that?"

"Heh. If that's what you want me to do, sure! I can do that!" AJ said, perfectly fine with something other than a simple chore. AJ left to go and find them.

* * *

He walked for awhile, planning to start with Naruto, the one that would be easiest to find, until he heard someone calling out for Sakura, and he decided to start with her.

"Excuse me? Are you Sakura Haruno?" AJ asked the girl with pink hair and a red dress… he thought it was a dress at least.

"Huh? Yes, what do you need Mister?" Sakura asked the tall man wearing a cloak. "What's with the cat?" She asked pointing at the cat on his shoulder who smiled at her.

"Doesn't matter, Kakashi sensei told me to find you, follow me." AJ ordered and Sakura followed only because the man was supposedly ordered by Kakashi sensei.

"So could you take off the hood? It's kind of creepy…" Sakura asked lamely.

AJ turned around and jumped at her. "BOO!"

Sakura let out a girly scream and AJ fell on the floor laughing and Sakura pouted angrily at him.

"It's not funny, ok!?" She yelled and AJ stood up, causing his hood to fall off, revealing his face and brown hair.

"Sure, whatever." He said smiling and chuckling and continued on his way.

They went to the training field and AJ took a stance, telling her to do the same.

"Now attack me." AJ ordered.

"What? Why?" Sakura asked.

"Just do it! We're fighting now! Give it your all! Try to kill me!" AJ yelled and grabbed a Kunai, a knife that could be held or thrown straight as an arrow. Neko got off him and went to the sidelines.

Sakura reluctantly pulled out a shuriken and threw it at him.

AJ blocked it with the knife and she charged at him. He stood calmly till she got close and simply grabbed her wrist, making her drop the kunai she had. He let go and she jumped away from him and tried again with another shuriken. He leaned out of the way this time and she used the chance to get close to him. He easily leaned out of the way of her swings and eventually made an obvious swing for her and she blocked it, causing them to lock knifes.

AJ barely pushed so they would stay in the lock but since she wouldn't make a move he decided to trip her and give her a small cut on her arm.

"You are weak, simple as that. You have no technique, no skill, you aren't fast at all, you aren't strong, how do you hope to become a successful ninja?" AJ asked angrily. "You are going to drag your team down tomorrow if you aren't careful."

Sakura got up slowly and held the cut on her arm, she glared at him before realizing he had a point and looked sad. She picked up her tools and left.

AJ went out to find his next target, it was midday now and he found Naruto at the Ichiraku Ramen shop as he expected.

"Hey, Naruto!" AJ yelled as he stood outside the shop and Naruto quickly finished his bowl and stepped out.

"Yeah? What do you want?" Naruto asked, looking at the tall cloaked man.

"Kakashi told me to find you, come with me." AJ ordered.

"Hey I recognize you!" Naruto yelled.

"No you don't, now hurry up!" AJ yelled.

They started to walk over to the training grounds.

"No I definitely remember you."

"Would you shut up kid?"

Naruto pouted.

"I always saw you at the shop, but you wouldn't talk to me." Naruto said.

"I don't have to talk to you, do I?" AJ asked.

"No but… ugh…" Naruto couldn't think of a reason why he should.

They made it to the grounds.

Naruto was blond with spiky hair and what looked like three whisker like birth marks on both cheeks, he had blue eyes, wore an orange tracksuit with blue on the upper shoulder area and the waist, a red swirl on the back, a large white collar, orange pants, a shuriken and or kunai holster on his right leg, blue sandals that some (most) ninja have, he also wears the headband on his head like AJ does.

"Now we're gonna spar." AJ said and got into a stance.

"Wait really?" Naruto asked before getting into a stance and getting excited. "I didn't know you fight."

AJ took off his hood, revealing his face and more specifically, his headband.

"Oh! You're a ninja!?" Naruto asked excitedly.

AJ charged and went for a punch but moved slow enough to give Naruto a chance to block, which he did, and went for a punch of his own. AJ dodged it and palm stuck Naruto back.

Naruto stood up and through a Kunai at him. He deflected it with his wrist guards and threw a kunai of his own. Naruto dodged before going for a blindingly obvious charge with another kunai and a stupid war cry.

'Just when I thought this kid fought seriously…'

AJ casually moved out of the way and tripped Naruto, making him fall flat on his face.

"Shouldn't run with knives kid! Might get hurt!" AJ yelled, trying to egg him on.

"Jerk!" Naruto said before making a hand sign. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" He yelled and a few puffs of smoke appeared. When they cleared it there were six Narutos.

AJ's semblance activated, shown with a light white glow coming from his eyes that soon faded.

"Nice little Jutsu you have there." AJ said casually. "Real clones, not just some illusion."

Naruto smiled. "Heh! Yep! Attack!" He said and they all charged.

"Neko, I need your help!" AJ yelled behind him to Neko. He made a few hand signs that he had memorized. "Animal Fusion Jutsu!" Neko fused with AJ and now AJ had the green eyes with gold flecks in them while also gaining the cat ears and tail, this helped him be more agile, which was something he didn't need against that Sakura girl.

It wasn't a real Jutsu, it was just a cover for having cat parts in the middle of a fight.

AJ now moved quickly to fight the clones. Blocking the first punch, dodging the second, redirecting the third into the first and destroying both clones in a puff of smoke. The fourth tried to kick him but he caught his leg and broke it, getting rid of that clone. The fifth threw a kunai and he caught it and threw it back. The clone dodged it and tried a sweeping kick. AJ jumped up and kicked it in the face.

The real Naruto burst through the smoke and tried for a right punch. AJ caught it in his right palm, so Naruto tried for a left punch, AJ raised his right elbow to block that and then threw Naruto over his shoulder and into the ground before twisting his arm slightly. He took a kunai and placed a cut on his arm just like he did with Sakura.

"Arg… darn it…" Naruto said through his teeth.

"Good try Naruto, you aren't as useless as Sakura." AJ said but it wasn't much of a compliment in his mind. He released Naruto's arm.

"Hey, don't say that about her!" Naruto threatened.

"You are too cocky, too direct, and not that bright from what I've heard. Keep practicing, otherwise you can just give up on becoming Hokage." AJ said simply and Naruto glared at him and gave out another stupid war cry and tried to punch him. AJ punched the short kid square in the face and knocked him on his back. " The fight is over, idiot." Naruto stood up again and looked like he was going to charge again. " If I have to hit you anymore you are going to be useless and your teammates might go on without you."

"Fine…" Naruto glared at him and left.

It was night now and time to find Sasuke.

He hadn't gotten far into the city and had seen everyone was heading into their homes.

"So, are you the one that has been harassing my teammates?" A voice asked and AJ and Neko turned around to see Sasuke leaning on a wall.

He wore a blue (or purple, again I can't really tell at all) shirt, white shorts, his hair was black with bits of blue, he had white gauntlets if you can call them that on his lower arms, his kunai/shuriken pouch was on his right leg like AJ and Naruto, he wore the same blue sandals the rest of his team wore, and his stance screamed 'overconfident cool kid.'

"Yes, and I thought I would save the 'best' for last." AJ threw air quotes for last to piss him off and it did the job well.

They went to the training grounds and got ready to fight.

AJ used his Animal Fusion Jutsu right off the bat.

Sasuke immediately threw a few shuriken and kunai at once and AJ dodged it and found Sasuke was already in front of him.

'Heh, this kid is actually somewhat fast.'

Sasuke threw a few punches and AJ blocked them easily, making sure to smile the whole time and piss off Sasuke. It did and Sasuke jumped back and made a few hand signs.

'Wait, can he really do fire style?'

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Sasuke shouted and breathed a fireball at AJ, 'That would be a yes!' who used a glyph to block it.

"Nice one kid! Didn't know Genin could do that." AJ congratulated him before performing a few hand signs of his own. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" AJ breathed his own larger fireball and Sasuke barely dodged it.

Before Sasuke could react AJ was behind him and hit him in the back, hard, knocking him away but Sasuke quickly stood up. He saw that a white mist was flowing from AJ and he was grinning confidently.

He then found that AJ was behind him again, and found he was on the ground a couple feet away, again.

"You're a tougher one, so I'll just make it clear that you can't win." AJ said before repeating the whole motion of moving faster than Sasuke can follow and after a couple hard hits Sasuke retreated into the trees.

"Oh no, wherever did he go?" AJ asked, voice filled with sarcasm.

AJ decided to make it remotely challenging by removing his *Puts on sunglasses* E _motion_ sensor… get it? E-motion se- forget it…

AJ waited for awhile and had his eyes closed. It was pretty obvious that he was focusing but he knew Sasuke had to attack eventually.

His Faunus ears twitched from the sound of a kunai flying through the air, so he tilted his head slightly and dodged it, then quickly spun and threw 5 shuriken at once into the leaves of the tree behind him. There was a cry of pain and Sasuke fell out of the tree holding his left arm, he had a cut on it identical to the one AJ had given Naruto and Sakura, not that Sasuke knew that.

"Now _you_ , my friend, are a good damn ninja, oh wait, you aren't one yet! If your squad fails their test tomorrow your skill doesn't matter because you still fail!" AJ said before leaving, enjoying the anger he filled the boy with.

* * *

He came by at 10, five damn hours after the time Kakashi told the squad to be there, and by the looks on their faces, they were there on time.

'They'll figure out someday that he is never on time.' AJ thought as he watched from a tree, waiting for Kakashi to finally arrive. He was supposed to watch from a distance and they didn't need to know he was there. Kakashi knew for sure but that was a given, so it didn't matter.

"So, you give them something to think about?" Kakashi asked, sitting beside him.

"I sure did, not sure if I really helped or just made it worse, and I'm not sure which I like better." AJ said with a chuckle and looked over his shoulder at Kakash. "Better get down there now, they are gonna be _pissed_ at you." AJ said.

"Morning everyone, ready for your first day?" Kakashi asked nonchalantly as he suddenly stood before the three kids.

""HEY YOU'RE LATE!"" Naruto and Sakura shouted and pointed at him.

"Huh?" AJ asked himself as he looked at the Kakashi down there, then at the one sitting in a tree right next to him, then back at the one down there, then back at the one next to him, then punched the one next to him and it went up in a puff of white smoke. "Stupid shadow clone…" He said as he went back to looking at the real one.

"Well a black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way." Kakashi said.

'Was that a reference to me? Cause I'm not a black cat and neither is Neko.'

"You guys all have the same cut on your arm, what happened?" Kakashi asked, knowing the answer.

"Some jerk fought me. He said you had told him to find me! Why'd you do that, Sensei!?" Naruto asked.

"Why I have no idea what you're talking about." Kakashi said.

"Wait you had to fight a guy as well?" Sakura asked.

"Wait, you mean I wasn't the only one?" Naruto asked Sakura and turned to her.

They both looked at the identical mark they had on their arms. They looked to Sasuke and saw he had the same cut as well.

""YOU DID HAVE THAT GUY COME AFTER US, DIDN'T YOU!?"" Sakura and Naruto yelled and pointed at Kakashi.

"Well, let's get started." Kakashi said, ignoring them, and walked over to a nearby log and placed a clock on it. "Here we go, it's set for noon." He started the timer on it.

"Your assignment is very simple. You just have to take these bells from me, that's all there is to it." Kakashi said as he held the two bells. " If you can't get em by noon, you go without lunch."

"WHAT!?" Naruto yelled.

"You'll be tied to those posts and you'll watch while I eat my lunch in front of you." Kakashi said and they all realized why he had them not eat in the morning.

"Wait a minute, there are three of us so how come there are only two bells?" Sakura asked.

"Well that way at least one of you will be tied to a post and ultimately be disqualified for failing to complete the mission." Kakashi explained. "That one goes back to the academy."

"Then again, all three of you could flunk out too. You can use any weapons including shuriken, if you aren't prepared to kill me, you won't be able to take the bells." Kakashi said.

"Those weapons are too dangerous Sensei!" Sakura spoke up.

"Haha! Especially since you couldn't even dodge that eraser!" Naruto said, laughing.

"Class clowns are usually the weakest links, you can safely ignore them. Lowest scores, losers." Kakashi said and AJ could sense from Naruto that he went too far with that one.

"When I say start you can begin." Kakashi said and Naruto growled before pulling out a kunai and charging.

Kakashi stood behind Naruto before the kid could even get to him and put Naruto's hand behind his head with his own knife, still in his hand, about to stab himself in the back of the head.

"Don't be in such a hurry, I didn't say start yet." Kakashi said.

Naruto tried hopelessly to get out of the hold. The other two took a step back and Kakashi finally released Naruto.

"But, you came at me with the full intention of destroying me so… How can I put this? I'm actually to _like_ you guys." Kakashi said, getting a smile from Naruto.

"Get ready… aaaannnd…. START!" Kakashi shouted and the three all dashed away and hid.

"Ninja must know how to conceal their movements, and hide effectively." Kakashi said out loud, assuming they could hear him.

'Well… they do seem to have that bit down so far… well most of them do…'

"You and me! Right now! Fair and square! Let's go!" Naruto shouted as he stood before his sensei.

"…You know compared to the others, you're a bit… weird." Kakashi commented.

"Oh yeah!? The only thing weird here is your haircut!" Naruto said before charging.

'Sick burn, Naruto…' AJ thought sarcastically.

Kakashi reached into his weapon pouch and Naruto stopped his charge.

"Shinobi Battle Technique's Part One: Taijutsu, the Physical part." Kakashi said.

'Oh hey he's doing this again.'

Kakashi finally pulled something out from his bag… a book…

"What the?" Naruto said out loud in confusion.

'What is he… oh… he's taunting the brat! HAHA!'

"Well? What are you waiting for? Make your move." Kakashi taunted.

"But… Why are you reading that book?" Naruto asked.

"Well to find out what happens in the story of course." Kakashi answered.

'Smartass.'

"Don't let it bother you. With your weak attacks, it doesn't really matter if I'm reading or… whatever." Kakashi said.

"I'M GOING TO CRUSH YOOOOOUUU!" Naruto yelled with yet another obvious charge.

Kakashi stopped the attack without even looking, so Naruto tried to kick him, only to fail miserably, because Kakashi crouched to avoid it, all while still staring into the book. The book of course reminded AJ of Blake and he tried to just focus on the fight.

"Now you're mine!" Naruto shouted as he went to punch Kakashi while he was crouched. Kakashi used his speed to appear behind Naruto.

"Don't let your enemy get behind you all the time." Kakashi said while preparing a hand sign. AJ knew what was going to happen and it was the perfect distraction for him.

"NARUTO GET OUT OF THERE QUICK! HE'S GOING TO DESTROY YOU!" Sakura shouted.

"Too late." Kakahi said. "Leaf Village Secret Finger Jutsu:

A Thousand Years of Death!" Naruto was sent flying away and fell in the water.

If they weren't so focused on the fight they could have heard AJ failing to muffle his laughter, luckily it was his gasping laugh so there wasn't much to hear.

'Oh god my side hurts! Thank you Kakashi!'

Two shuriken flew out from the water and Kakashi caught them with two fingers without even looking up from his book.

"Show off." AJ said quietly.

Naruto slowly crawled out of the water.

"What are you doing now? You know you won't get lunch unless to take a bell by noon." Kakashi pointed out.

"I know! I know! You told us already!" Naruto complained.

"You look pretty wobbly for someone who going to 'surpass the Hokage'." Kakashi pointed out.

"You told us not to eat! How can I fight when I'm starving to death!?" Naruto asked. "You just caught me off guard! That's all it was! Believe it!" Naruto yelled confidently.

"I'm, so hungry I don't have any strength! But I can't let that stop me, I've got to get one of those bells no matter what! I'll find the strength somehow, believe it! I'm going to pass this test, and I'm not going back to the academy!" Naruto shouted. " I will become a ninja! " And with that a bunch of Naruto's came out of the water.

"You're overconfident, Sensei! Shadow Clones! Attack!" Naruto shouted and the clones charged.

"Great technique, but I don't think you can maintain it for very long. You talk like you're the best Naruto but you are still the worst student. You can't beat me with this jutsu…" Kakashi said. But after he said that a clone grabbed him from behind.

"What!?" Kakashi shouted.

"Didn't you say never let your enemies get behind you? Good advice, Sensei!" Naruto said.

The rest of the clones grabbed Kakashi's legs and one of the Naruto's jumped up.

"This is for nailing me in the butt earlier!" Naruto shouted proudly as he punched… himself in the face?

"It's you… You're Kakashi Sensei aren't you!? Trying to trick me by becoming me!? Well I won't fall for it!" Naruto shouted and all the clones started hitting each other and accusing one another of being Kakashi in disguise.

"I know! Just undo the Jutsu!" One of the Naruto's shouted and then they all went up in smoke. Leaving Naruto all alone and looking like a fool.

'So he didn't transform into Naruto, which I would have thought would have fooled him, no instead he switched himself with one of the clones and hid, letting Naruto beat himself up.' AJ realized.

Naruto noticed something shiny in the grass and then noticed it was one of the bells.

"A bell!? It must have fallen off him!" Naruto said proudly and walked up to the bell only to be hung upside down by his ankle. "Somebody! Help!" Naruto said and also tried in vain to reach the bell below him until Kakashi casually walked up and took it.

"Think before you use a Jutsu, or your enemy will turn it against you." Kakashi said. "Oh and if the bait is obvious, don't take it." This infuriated Naruto.

'No kidding, that was so obvious it was ridiculous.'

"A ninja must see through deception." Kakashi explained.

"I… get… it!" Naruto said as he continued to struggle.

"I'm telling you this because you _don't_ get it. You _think_ you get it which is not the same as actually getting it, get it?" Kakashi explained.

AJ felt emotion that was equivalent to " This is my chance! " and saw Kakashi get taken out by a few shuriken and kunai.

'Whoa, that actually hit him!? No… it couldn't… but there is blood so…'

Kakashi went up in a puff of smoke and when the smoke cleared there was a log with a few ninja tools stabbed in it.

'Ok… geez Kakashi… thought you actually got hurt that time… Freaking Substitution Jutsu is such a pain to deal with…

AJ couldn't get any closer to see what happens now and they went out of his emotion sense range so now all he had was the girl screaming in the distance, the fireball later, and Naruto stuck in a tree right now.

"'A ninja must see through deception!' How am I supposed to do that!?" Naruto grunted as he finally pulled out a kunai to cut the rope. "Well I'm sure not falling for any more of his traps!" The moment he landed he caught in another rope trap. "AAAH! I FELL FOR IT AGAIIIINN!" Naruto shouted and heard laughing in the distance.

"Hey! What's so funny!?" He shouted angrily and the laughing stopped suddenly. "NO! WAIT! I'm sorry! Help me out here!" No response.

There's the scream.

Naruto continued to hang upside down and calmly think for a minute. He noticed something in the distance.

" Hey, what are those things down there… Hey! I know what those are! Those are boxed lunches! " He said excitedly. " Oh… A ninja must see through deception." He said and laughed like he had some great idea. " AND WOULD THAT PERSON OUT THERE THAT LAUGHED AT ME COME HELP ME NOW!? "

And there is the fire ball.

Naruto laughed victoriously. He now sat in front of the boxed lunches that he had found.

"Sensei said we can't have any lunch but if I eat my lunch now then there is nothing he can do! It's chow time!" Naruto shouted.

"Hi there."

"AAAAHH!" Naruto shouted at the voice of his Sensei hanging over him. " I was just joking Sensei. "

"Nice try." Kakashi said.

And there's another scream…

…

'Aaaaannnnd times up.'

…

"Ok why is Naruto the only one tied to a post…" AJ asked himself.

"Uh oh. Stomach's growling huh? Too bad." Kakashi said as he looked down at the three students. Naruto is tied to the same post that the clock now sits on while the others are sitting on either side of him.

"Oh by the way, about this exercise, I've decided I won't send any of you back to the academy." Kakashi said and they got excited.

'Then why do you feel like you have something else to say, you're anticipating your own words… why?'

"What? I passed?" Sakura asked. "All I did was faint and fall over, do we get points for that?"

Sasuke chuckled proudly while Sakura and Naruto cheered.

"Yep, all three of you, _are being dropped from the program!_ " Kakashi stated. "PERMENENTLY!"

"Whoa, the hell Kakashi? All my work for nothing?" AJ asked out loud.

"What work? You barely did anything?" Neko teased.

"Drop us from the program!? That means we can never become ninja!" Naruto said. "You said if we didn't take the bells we would be sent back to the academy! YOU CAN'T JUST CHANGE YOUR MIND AND KICK US OUT WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT!?" Naruto demanded and tried to get out of the rope that tied him to the post.

"Because you don't think like Ninja, you think like little kids, like brats." Kakashi explained and Sasuke got pissed off at this and charged him.

"You think it's all about you!" Kakashi stated while he sat on Sasuke's back and held Sasuke's arm behind his back and stepped on his head.

"LET GO OF SASUKE! YOU CAN'T STEP ON HIM LIKE HE'S SOME BUG!" Sakura shouted.

'OH MY GOD I just figured out why Kakashi feels so incredibly disappointed in them.'

Sasuke tried in vain to move.

"You don't know what it means to be a ninja!" Kakashi said angrily. " You think it's a game huh!? "

"Why do you think we put you on squads!? Could you consider that question for one moment!?" Kakashi asked through his unseen teeth.

"I-I don't know what you mean!" Sakura said, confused.

"I mean, you never realized what this exercise is all about. Not even close." Kakashi answered.

"What it's about?" Naruto asked.

"Yes. That's what determines rather you pass or fail." Kakashi explained.

"But that's… I mean I wanted to ask you that from the beginning." Sakura said shyly.

'Then why didn't you?'

"Tsk! Use your head! Three people on a squad! Why do you think we would do that?" Kakashi asked.

"AAAGGGH! How are we supposed to know why you pick three people!? We didn't make the rules!" Naruto shouted.

"It's so basic," Kakashi said, and then he said at the same moment that AJ thought: "Teamwork!"

Realization hit the three kids, hard.

"Just working together, is that what you mean?" Sakura asked.

"That's what I mean. It's too late _now!_ But if all three of you had come at me, you _might_ have been able to take them!" Kakashi explained. " Well… anyway, it's over. Come on out, Shin!"

'Wait what? Oh shit, ok.' AJ used his Aura bow to teleport to them. "Yes Sensei?"

""Huh?"" Sakura and Naruto both asked as they looked at the cloaked newcomer who pulled down his hood. ""HEY I REMEMBER YOU!"" They both shouted and pointed at him. Sasuke visually bristled but couldn't move anyway, still pinned by Kakashi.

"Why now?" AJ asked.

"Because it's over." Kakashi said angry and disappointed and released Sasuke.

"You set it up with three people but only two bells!" Sakura realized. "If we worked together and caught the bells only two of us could keep them and that would lead to group conflict the squad would break up!"

"You hit the nail on the head there girl. You think he didn't do that on purpose?" AJ asked.

"What?" Naruto asked, surprised.

"I wanted to see if you could overcome that and put the squad ahead of yourselves! Genin should have a natural feel for teamwork, but you? It never even crossed your mind!" Kakashi explained.

'That's why he's so disappointed in them. Man it sounds like they were the worst squad he ever dealt with.'

AJ walked up to Kakashi. "Come on Sensei, just give 'em another chance. I get that you're disappointed but that Sasuke one has skill that shouldn't be wasted." He whispered.

"Why should I?" Kakashi asked before turning to the kids.

"Sakura! You obsessed about Sasuke, who was gone, while Naruto was right in front of you and you wouldn't lift a finger to help him!" Kakashi scolded and she looked down in regret.

"Naruto! You do everything on your own! _Everything!_ " Kakashi scolded.

"And you Sasuke. You thought the others were so far beneath you they were worthless, _arrogance_. Ninja missions are carried out in squads. Of course you need individual skills, but teamwork is the most essential element. Every Shinobi understands this, when individuals put themselves above the squad, it can lead to failure, and _death_! For example:" Kakashi grabbed a kunai from his pouch. "Sakura! Kill Naruto now or Sasuke dies! " He said as he suddenly was standing next to Sasuke with a knife to his throat.

"That's what happens on a mission. The enemy takes a hostage and you've got an impossible choice, and someone ends up dead." Kakashi said as he put the kunai knife away.

"On every mission your life is on the line." He said and walked over to the memorial stone that AJ had appeared in front of when he came to this world three months ago.

"Have you looked at this stone? The names engraved on it? They are all ninja who are honored as heroes in our village." Kakashi explained solemnly.

"That's it! X3 Now I know! I'm gonna have my name engraved on that stone!" Naruto shouted when a kunai struck the log he was tied to right above his head.

"You idiot!" AJ shouted. "Do you really have no idea of the how you get your name written on that stone!?" He yelled as he got in his face. Naruto was still in shock from fear. "YOU DIE!" Naruto was shocked by this info before looking down sadly.

"This is a memorial stone. The names of my closest friends are written here." Kakashi said and it didn't take AJ's abilities to feel the sorrow in his voice. "… Alright Shin, I'm granting your wish, I'll give them one more chance."

They all got excited by this and AJ was shocked for a moment before nodding thankfully.

"But I'm going to make it much harder on your three." Kakashi finished. "You'll have three hours to get a bell, eat up now to build strength, except Naruto, he doesn't get any.

"It's your punishment for trying to break the rules and eat by yourself. And if anyone tries to feed him that person will automatically fail." Kakashi threatened.

"What!?" Naruto whined.

" _I make the rules, you follow them. Got it!?"_ Kakashi said threateningly.

And with that Kakashi left and AJ decided to go back to his hiding spot and watch the coming fight while Sakura and Sasuke both ate their meals while Naruto sat there and his stomach growled.

"This is no big deal, I can go without food for days! For weeks! Believe it! This is no. Big. Deal!" Naruto yelled confidently. Then his stomach growled again…

"Here." Sasuke said handing his food to Naruto.

"What? No Sasuke you can't do that!" Sakura said. " You heard what the Sensei said."

"Kakashi is gone. We need to get those bells as a team. If Naruto is hungry he'll be weak and ineffective, that hurts the team and jeopardizes the mission." Sasuke reasoned.

Sakura debated this for a minute and decided to hand her lunch as well.

"Ok, thanks." Naruto said. " But wait I can't eat, you have to feed me!"

"Fine! But this is one time only got it!?" Sakura threatened.

"Got it!" Naruto said smiling.

He got one bite before there was an explosion in front of them and Kakashi came flying out, causing Naruto to panic.

"YOU!" Kakashi yelled angrily.

"You broke the rules. I hope you're ready for the punishment!" Kakashi said angrily and made a few hand signs causing the sky to darken with clouds that came out of nowhere and lighting could be seen.

"Any last words?"

"But you said-" Naruto started.

"YES?" Kakashi asked.

"You said there were three of us! That's why Sakura… and…" Naruto quickly forgot how to words.

"We're all on this squad and we're all in it together." Sasuke said.

"Yeah! We gave our lunch to him because the three of us are one!" Sakura shouted proudly.

'Oh wait… I can't feel any anger from him… in fact he is really happy and proud right now… Kakashi you are _evil_ sometimes… hehe.'

"The three of you are one!? That's your excuse!?" Kakashi asked angrily.

…

" You pass."

""Huh?"" Naruto and Sakura exclaimed.

"You. Pass." Kakashi said with a much happier tone.

"What do you mean? How'd we pass?" Sakura asked.

The clouds that came out of nowhere started to recede. "You're the first squad that's ever done it. The others did exactly what I said, and fell into every trap. They couldn't think for themselves. A ninja must see through deception. In the ninja world those who break the rules are scum, that's true.

But, those who abandon their friends, are worse than scum." Kakashi finished.

Sakura sighed in relief, Naruto was about to cry 'manly' tears and Sasuke was smiling for passing, or maybe in understanding, one or both.

"He's uh… you know… he's kinda cool." Naruto said, holding back tears.

"Well, congratulations then." AJ said as he appeared next to Kakashi.

"The exercise is over, everyone passes! Squad 7 starts its first mission tomorrow!" Kakashi said as he and gave a dramatic thumbs up that made AJ sweatdrop.

"Yes!"

"…"

"I did it! I did it! Believe it! I'm a ninja! Ninja! Ninja!"

"Let's go home." Kakashi said and he and AJ started walking back to the village, soon followed by Sakura and Sasuke.

"HEY! YOU FORGOT TO UNTIE MEEEEE!" Naruto yelled behind them.

* * *

 **Yeah, I know, you have questions. Don't bother asking. The story will answer your questions, someday far in the future.**

 **I** _ **will**_ **answer why the number of this book is just a question mark at the moment: Because the books are numbered in chronologic order.**

 **Yes, that is my answer.**

 **Also, the emotion sense was an ability he unlocked in EXTRAS at one point.**

 **Anyway, the character has changed, the scene has changed, the teammates have changed, the goal of the book has changed, and we seem to have jumped forward in time, but how far?**

 **Follow, fav, review, whatever you want.**

 **Have a great day.**


	2. The Bridge Builder

**I'm sorry, but I need to say this, because that review reminded me of something…**

… **Something that I find incredibly STUPID, and I will never be able to do anything about, and that annoys me to no end.**

 **If I replaced my OC for the entire Fate series with, say, Jaune, ALMOST NO ONE WOULD COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS STORY. Not only that, but I would probably have a hundred or more follows. It's ridiculous! You know what Jaune/Ruby/Naruto/Sasuke/Kakashi/Blake/Yang is? AN OC! AN ORIGIONAL CHARACTER! THERE IS NO DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A 'Canon character' AND AN OC! If you ignore the fact that AJ is an 'oc' you just have this big interesting (In my opinion) story! But no! It's an OC, which means he can't be powerful or you suck as a writer!**

 **Why?** _ **WHYYYYY!?**_ **Naruto is crazy powerful and still, a ton of people love that series, including me! Why is my OC any different!? Because he's me!? Because he's my character!? So what!? What if Naruto was an SI of someone that made the Naruto series? Who would really care!? A "real" character can be as powerful as you want it to be, while my "oc" can't be or everyone hates me and the story!**

 **And another thing! What is everyone's problem with OC's to begin with!?**

 **Imagine if Naruto didn't exist, ok? Just imagine that. Now imagine some nobody writer like me went and wrote a story about characters that he created, "OCs" that did the exact same things that the Naruto characters did. It was literally Naruto but it was made by some nobody. People like me would love it! People who didn't have a problem with OC's would love it! But other people would complain about "Gary whatever-the-fuck-it-is". I realize that example is terrible, but what I'm trying to say is that there is no fucking difference between a 'canon' character, and an OC!**

 **THEY ARE ALL CHARACTERS, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE!? THEY HAVE THEIR OWN PERSONALITIES, OPINIONS, GOALS, WHATEVER. BUT IT DOESN'T MATTER TO EVERYONE ELSE! THEY'LL NEVER SEE THIS STORY FOR WHAT IT IS BECAUSE IT HAS AN OC, AND I'LL NEVER UNDERSTAND THAT.**

 **YES, THE OC HAS CRAZY POWERS. IF AN OFFICIAL SHOW'S CHARACTER HAD THESE POWERS, PEOPLE WOULD LOVE IT! YES, THE OC IS ME. BECAUSE I CAN'T WORK WITH CHARACTERS THAT I DON'T KNOW WELL AND I'M THE ONLY PERSON I KNOW WELL. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH SOME SUPERIORITY COMPLEX OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT. I WAS ALWAYS LIVING OUT FANTASIES IN MY HEAD, AND THEN I HAD AN IDEA SO GREAT I HAD TO SHARE IT WITH THE WORLD!**

 **I'M BEING CREATIVE HERE! WHY DOES NO ONE JUST SEE THAT!?**

 **If you just read the first two books, and you stick around till the end of the massive journey that is Fate, you might notice that this was a very creative and interesting story! You might notice that the person that thought of this all by himself is very smart and creative to have thought of all this!**

 **But no! All people see is an OC, which apparently means "bad" to pretty much everyone, and the fact that he has incredible powers, which, because it's an OC that has them, also means "bad" to pretty much everyone. (Don't you see how stupid that sounds!?)**

 **I can't tell you what will happen, but if you stick around and ignore stupid shit like that, you will see a very interesting story unfold! I want to get to the end so badly! I want to tell it all to you! But there is so much I have to do first! The end explains everything! It explains why everything has happened so far!**

 **I just wish people could see a story for what it is… I wish people didn't hate OC's for no logical reason… I wish more people were willing to check out my story and enjoy it… but they just never will…**

 ***Sigh***

 **I'm sorry… I'll get on with the story no one likes…**

 **Enjoy, if you even can.**

* * *

Tortured Soul Ch.2

* * *

"Speech." Sakura said.

'Thought.' Sasuke thought.

"Speech!" Naruto yelled proudly.

'Thought…' Kakashi thought. He also wondered why Naruto had to yell.

"It's the OC's thought, that's me, unless it says otherwise! Got it!?" AJ asked, pointing at the camera.

 **For those of you that don't know, I do intros. Here's the intro.**

 **Brightdown, English Fandub**

 _As my fingers trace the scar of this frozen bond_

AJ is shown walking along the edge of a forest at night, he doesn't have his cloak and touches two scars running down the left side of his face. He looks distant and lonely as he slowly walks along the path and stares at the ground in thought.

 _Deep within the crevice tearing my broken heart_

He shuts his eyes tight as tears fall out of them and he sobs quietly.

 _My body is wondering on…_

 _All my thoughts evaporate into shapeless dark_

He opens his eyes and a few tears continue to fall but now he looks very angry as he grits his teeth and glares up at the camera.

 _Faded like the past decays in a memory_

His eyes turn red and his teeth grow sharp. He turns back to normal as he suddenly snaps his head in the direction of the forest and catches a glimpse of someone that looked like Blake.

 _Now I search for an illusion_

He runs frantically through the forest looking in every direction for her and eventually comes to a small clearing and falls to his knees and cries again. He keeps his mouth shut tight gritting his teeth together, he also keeps his eyes shut tight but once again tears get through.

 _I will try to wield power over destiny…_

 _In the world that shined for me_

White Aura blasted out of him and he stood up and rushed further into the forest still frantically searching.

 _My memories live on_

He thought about teams RWBY and JNPR and the things they had done together.

 _Forgotten dreams call out_

He stopped for a moment and looked around.

 _To stars that I once wished upon_

He smiled as he looked up at the stars through a hole in the canopy of trees, before rushing out again.

 _Now I see the scenery_

He continued to run but now tears ran down his face as he ran.

 _Distilled inside my mind_

 _That never ending night_

Scene of him crying in his sleep.

 _And days stretch forever_

Scene of him walking around the village looking distant.

 _Though we're far apart, you are still in my heart_

He thought about Blake again and ran faster.

 _And no mere separation_

He let out another burst of Aura and went into his second stage where his Aura took the form of see though wings behind him.

 _Will stop this light from reaching you_

Blake was visited by a white light in her dream back on Remnant.

 _A miracle_

AJ jumped out into another clearing and looked at the camera. He started building up Aura into his right hand, so much it was a light show of bright white mist so bright it actually is blinding.

 _Will finally come true_

He charged at the viewer with his lightshow of a punch.

Change scene and camera looks at a Naruto in nine tails mode covered in red chakra.

Camera turns to the Sasuke in his second stage curse mark.

Camera turns again to see AJ glaring at the two before charging at them as we hit the static part of the song they charge at each other and the screen goes black.

Fate: Tortured Soul

* * *

"Sasuke. I'm in point B." Sasuke's voice sounded through the wireless communicators.

"Sakura. I'm in point C."

"Naruto. I'm in point A. Believe it!"

"Point D…" AJ, excuse me, Shin sounded unenthusiastically.

"Pay attention Shin, and take it slow Naruto." Kakashi warned.

'Well excuse me if this is a boring mission…'

"Ok, Squad 7… The target has moved!" Kakashi yelled and the four took after it.

"Over there…" Naruto pointed out as they moved closer, hiding behind trees to go unseen.

"What's your distance from the target?" Kakashi asked.

"Five meters. I'm ready, just give the signal!" Naruto said.

"I'm ready too." Sasuke said.

"So am I!" Sakura said.

"Ok… NOW!" Kakashi signaled and they jumped the target, only to see Shin and his cat sitting next to the target like they were talking.

The target is a cat with a red bow on its right ear. Neko and the cat are standing face to face and meowing like they were talking and Shin was casually sitting there watching them.

"Well?" Shin asked Neko.

"He doesn't want to go back because his owner is torturing him." Neko explained to him. (it could be a her I don't know)

"Well too bad. The mission is simple and morals aren't gonna be a good excuse for letting a cat get away." Shin explained and nodded to Naruto who quickly grabbed the cat.

"I got it!" Naruto shouted proudly and the cat started clawing him.

It attacked him pretty much the whole way back yet never took a chance to run, it just really didn't like Naruto.

"Lost pet Tora captured. Mission accomplished." Kakashi said as they started walking back to the village.

"CANT WE GET A BETTER MISSION THAN THIS!? I HATE CATS!" Shin had torn off his mic the moment Naruto started but the others weren't so lucky, not even Kakashi.

They now stood in a room before the Hokage for debriefing and being given new missions.

"Oh my poor little Tora, mommy was so worried about you! *more gibberish*" That would be The Wife of The Land of Fire's Daimyo. She is currently hugging the cat and smothering him.

'And now I get what it meant by torture…'

"HAHA! Stupid cat! That cat deserves to be squashed!" Naruto said and Neko growled at him making him flinch.

"Your opinion Neko?" Shin asked the cat on his shoulder.

"A rescue mission to free Tora." Neko suggested.

"Hmm… no."

"What!?" Neko complained.

"There would just be another mission to go get him back." Shin pointed out.

"No wonder he ran away…" Sakura said feeling bad for the cat.

"Now then, Squad 7…" The Third Hokage started. "We have several missions available for you. We have babysitting the chief counselor's three year old, helping his wife do the shopping, digging up potatoes and-"

"NOOOO!" Naruto whined. "I wanna go on a real mission!"

"Would you stop yelling all the time!?" Shin complained. (Actually I'm just gonna put AJ anyway…I know, I'm so professional. I never said I was anyway, never was really going for "professional")

"I want something challenging and exciting, not this little kid stuff!" Naruto demanded.

"You are a little kid." AJ pointed out, making Naruto glare and growl at him.

"Come on, old man!" Naruto pleaded to the Hokage.

"HOW DARE YOU!?" Iruka yelled.

Iruka currently sat next to the Hokage. He wore the same shirt and vest that Kakashi wore, had the same headband, but the scar that went right across his face below his eyes and along his nose was his unique feature.

"You're just a brand new Genin with no experience! Like everyone else you start with simple missions to develop your skills and prove yourself!" Iruka explained.

"Are you serious!? Babysitting is not a mission, it's just stupid-" Naruto is cut off by Kakashi hitting him over the head, sending him to the floor.

"Will you put a lid on it?" Kakashi asked.

"I can't think of a single skill being trained by babysitting. The cat chase had actual practice with a chase but the only harm done to us was the cat scratching Naruto. So I would hardly call this developing skills." AJ pointed out.

"Naruto, Shin, it seems you don't understand the tasks you have been given." The Hokage stated. "Listen, many different kinds of requests come into our village every day, from babysitting to assassinations. These missions must be carefully analyzed so they can be given a rank, A, B, C, or D, depending on the perceived difficulty. Certain ninja can only go on certain ranked missions, you Genin are the lowest, and cannot go on difficult missions, you also have barely gone on any missions, so even C ranks are not allowed for you. You are only going on D ranked missions because of this." The Hokage explained and then noticed that Naruto had started some story and AJ hit him over the head to shut him up.

"Look, you always lecture me like you're my grandfather or something! But I'm not the little brat who pulled pranks all the time! I'm a ninja now, and I want a ninja mission!" Naruto finished and childishly pouted, turning away from them.

'What? You're just gonna pout till they listen? What a brat…'

"I'm going to hear about this later…" Kakashi said out loud.

'Oh, this must really be embarrassing for him, not that Naruto cares about that at this point.'

Strangely enough The Third and Iruka both chuckled at this.

"Naruto wants us to know that he is not a brat, but a former brat."

'Nope, still a brat.'

"He wants a mission, so be it." The Third Hokage said.

"Huh?" A few members of Squad 7 asked.

"Since you are so determined, I'm going to give you a C ranked mission. You'll be bodyguards on a journey." The Hokage explained.

"Really?" Naruto asked.

"Well, guess I won't be able to bring my cloak this time." AJ said out loud.

"WHO!? WHO!? Are we gonna be guarding a princess!? Or-"

"SHUT UP ALREADY!" AJ yelled, bringing his fist down like a hammer on Naruto's head.

"I'll bring him in now." The Hokage said and Naruto would have stood up if his head didn't hurt so much. AJ didn't hold back as much as he probably should have… "Send in our visitor."

They all turned to the door behind them as a man stepped in.

"What the-!? A bunch a little snot nosed kids!? And I suppose one more mature one, but still!" The man yelled.

This man was not some well-dressed noble, or king of some kind. No he was some asshole with grey hair, a goatee, glasses, and a bottle in his hand which he drank from before finally stepping in. He had a large bag on his back, what looked like a towel wrapped around his neck at the moment, a piece of rope around his head like a headband, a dark sleeveless shirt, tan pants rolled up to just before the knee, and sandals as per the norm in this world…

"And you, the short one with the idiotic look on his face. You really expect me to believe you're a ninja?" The man asked rudely.

'See? Asshole. Insulting someone right off the bat.'

"Who's the one with the idiotic look on his face?" Naruto asked, laughing, before realizing it was himself. "I'll demolish you! Let me get my hands on him!" *BANG*

"Idiot." AJ said after knocking Naruto down again.

"You can't demolish him, he's our client Naruto. It just doesn't work that way." Kakashi said, looking down at Naruto while the blond was on the floor again.

"Would you quit hitting me!?" Naruto complained.

"Quit being an idiot and I'll think about it!" AJ responded, looking down at the short boy.

The man took another drink before speaking. "I am Tazuna, a master bridge builder, and I need to get back to my country." The man, Tazuna explained. "I'm building a bridge there that will change our world and I want you to get me there safely, even if it means giving up your life."

"Well that's usually part of the job description for a bodyguard." AJ pointed out.

"That is true." Kakashi agreed.

* * *

Eventually the team, along with Tazuna, set out and had just left the entrance to the village when Naruto ran out in front of them.

"YEAH! Alright!" Naruto shouted, throwing his arms up.

"What are you getting so excited about, Naruto?" Sakura asked.

"We literally _just_ walked out of the village." AJ pointed out, now lacking his usual dark brown cloak. He was the opposite of flashy now and he really hated how boring he looked. At least Kakashi had cool hair, AJ only had a plain black shirt and the Kevlar vest on.

"Exactly! This is the first time I've ever left the village! I'm a traveler now, believe it!" Naruto said excitedly as he looked around. AJ just now realized the impression Naruto was making on the client when said client spoke up.

"Hey! Am I supposed to trust my life to this runt!? He's a joke!" Tazuna pointed out. Tazuna was now wearing a ridiculous looking hat with a stupid point on the top of it. At least it kept the sun out of his eyes…

"Well he's with me and I'm a Jonin, so you don't need to worry." Kakashi explained.

"Yeah, and there are two other members here that will more than make up for it." AJ said, tilting his head slightly towards Sasuke.

"Oh really? We'll see about that!" Tazuna responded. "I've been meaning to ask, why are there four students in your team Kakashi? And why is one so much older?"

"It doesn't matter, does it? Just means you get more protection." AJ said before Kakashi got in front of him.

"Actually Shin, I see no harm in telling him the truth. He's been abandoned at birth and I've been keeping an eye on him for the last few years, so I figured I would just bring him into my squad, he can fight after all." Kakashi explained with an absolute lie.

Before Tazuna could comment or question this Naruto spoke up.

"Hey! Never insult a ninja, it's a big mistake, and I'm one of the greatest ninja ever! Someday I'm gonna be Hokage and people will look up to me! My name is Naruto Uzumaki. REMEMBER IT!" Naruto shouted, pointing at Tazuna.

Tazuna simply took another drink. "Hokage are powerful and wise, you are puny and brainless. The day you become Hokage I'll sprout wings and fly!"

"AGH! Shut up! I'm willing to do anything to become Hokage, no matter what it takes! And when I'm Hokage everyone will have to admit that I'm the top ninja, including you!" Naruto shouted angrily.

"Heh. You can become Hokage ten times over and to me, you'll still be nobody, a loser!" Tazuna said.

'That doesn't even make sense!' AJ thought then quickly knocked Naruto down before he tried to jump the client and Kakashi had to stop him.

"He's the client you idiot, stop trying to hit him." AJ deadpanned. 'Are you kidding me? We just stepped out and already I sense two people nearby… what the hell?'

* * *

And so they began walking, the part that AJ dreaded. Just walking for a really long time… He admired the scenery but it didn't change the fact that this would be a very long walk… And AJ's mind kept wandering back to Remnant so he took to walking in the back and trying to get rid of any tears that might form, he also kept himself distracted by trying to sense their followers. Sometimes they would actually go out of his emotion sense range which he found odd.

"Say, Mr. Tazuna?" Sakura started after a while.

"Yeah? What is it?"

"Your country is the Land of Waves, right?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, what of it?" Tazuna asked rudely.

"Kakashi Sensei, are there ninja in that land as well?" Sakura asked Kakashi.

"No, there are no ninja in the land of waves." Kakashi answered. "There are other lands that have hidden villages with ninja of their own, but a small island like the Land of Waves has natural barriers in the form of the sea, so they have no need for Shinobi. Basically, we won't be running into any ninja on our trip, at most we should just run into bandits." Kakashi explained.

"Oh, that's good!" Sakura said happily.

"Now the five hidden villages that are on the continent have leaders, and those leaders are called Kage, which means Shadow. The Hokage, Mizukage, Rikage, Kazekage, Suchikage, those are the five shadows that rein over the thousands of ninja." Kakashi reminded.

"So the Hokage is really important then!?" Sakura realized.

'He doesn't look that strong, so looks must be deceiving with him.'

"Hey! You all just doubted Lord Hokage, didn't you!? That's what you were thinking!" Kakashi scolded and Naruto and Sakura panicked.

"Nope." AJ said truthfully.

"Well, I'll let it slide this time." Kakashi said.

And so the walking continued! Crossing bridges over rivers, trees for days… yeah, it's a long walk…

There was also the random inconspicuous puddle that gave off emotion for some reason.

 _Anticipation_

'Not surprised. We are right there, just ripe for attacking. Though it seems Kakashi noticed this as he shares the anticipation, among other things.'

Kakashi made a point not minutes ago of being the one in the very back, which AJ reluctantly agreed to.

"What!?" Kakashi shouted and they all turned around to see two guys with spiked chains wrapped around Kakashi.

'So it begins.'

"Do it!" One of the masked men in dark cloaks shouted and they pulled the chains hard leaving Kakashi a bloody mess.

"What!?" Sakura shouted.

"No, Kakashi Sensei!" Naruto shouted when they both suddenly dashed for him and he froze.

AJ simply stood there, watching them and preparing to attack, when he realized that Sasuke was about to make his move.

"Now it's your turn!" One of them said as they went to trap Naruto in the chains.

'Ok, their plan of attack works around surprise and using that chain to doom to the target. Not bad.'

Just as the chains were about to get Naruto, Sasuke jumped up and threw a shuriken at the chain with precision and the chain was stabbed into a tree. He then threw a kunai on top of that for good measure. He then landed on their arms that had the chain attached to them and grabbed their arms to kick them both in the face. The two enemies realized their chain was useless and they broke the chain and charged separately, one went for Naruto and the other went for the client, who Sakura jumped in front of to protect.

AJ finally moved after all this time, putting his hood on and Neko discretely going into his mind, and suddenly appeared in front of the target that had gone for Tazuna and punched him in the throat, then kneed him in the crotch before finishing with a punch to the nose that gave a satisfying crunch. He then kicked him in the head while he was down to make sure he was out. He looked and saw Kakashi had taken out the target that had gone for Naruto. He took off his hood after Neko came out from under his shirt.

"Great job Sasuke, Shin, and you too Sakura." Kakashi said. "Oh, and sorry for not helping you earlier Naruto, I didn't think you'd freeze up like that."

'Naruto seems angry about something. Tazuna is just glad to be alive, so is Sakura, Kakashi is proud, Sasuke is his usual calm self, though I can sense he's proud of himself.'

"Hey, you're not hurt are ya? Scaredy cat!" Sasuke taunted Naruto.

"Grr… Sasuke!" Naruto shouted.

"Stop! Naruto, don't move around, their claws have poison in them. You need to open the wound and get the poison out. It spreads if you move around, so stand still." Kakashi warned and Naruto looked at the wound on the back of his left hand in fear. "By the way Mr. Tazuna."

"Huh!? Yeah? What?" Tazuna asked, clearly afraid of something.

"'What?' He says." AJ commented with a fake laugh.

"We need to talk." Kakashi finally said.

The two ninja were tied to a tree and they waited for them to wake up, whatever Kakashi did to his take down, AJ apparently did worse because it took his guy longer to wake up. Kakashi didn't even nurse his broken nose though.

"They are Chunin from the Village Hidden in the Mist. Their specialty is relentless attack, they keep fighting no matter what the sacrifice." Kakashi explained.

The men both wore gas masks for some reason, although the one that AJ attacked had his mask cracked.

"How did you know about our ambush?" One of them asked, wanting to understand how they failed.

"A puddle? When it hasn't rained in weeks?" Kakashi asked, basically giving his answer.

"In that case, why leave the Genin to fight?" Tazuna asked.

"I could have taken them out quickly and easily, I'm sure Shin knew about them and could have done the same. Actually, how long have they been following us, Shin? You never told me." Kakashi asked.

"Since the moment we stepped out of the village." AJ answered casually.

"How did _you_ know?" One of the ninja asked AJ.

"That's a secret for me to know and you to never find out." AJ answered simply.

"You see Tazuna? We _could_ have taken care of it, but then we would have learned nothing." Kakashi finally answered the client's question. "I had to know who their target was… and what they were after."

"Hmm? What are you getting at?" Tazuna asked Kakashi defensively.

"This: I wanted to know if they were after us, ninja attacking ninja, or if they were after you, the master bridge builder. When you put in your request, you asked for standard protection, from robbers and highwaymen… You didn't say there were ninja looking for you." Kakashi pointed out.

"That isn't exactly a C ranked mission. I certainly _hope_ you had good reason for that." AJ said threateningly. He didn't really care that he put the Genin in danger, he didn't really like the team Kakashi had, but the fact that this guy lied to the village, lied at all, kind of pissed him off.

"It would be a B rank mission or higher." Kakashi finished. "The task we were given was to get you to your destination, protect you while you built your bridge. If we knew you needed this kind of protection, we would have staffed differently, and charged more. I'm sure you had your reasons, but lying to us is not acceptable! We are now beyond the scope of our mission!" Kakashi said.

"We are just Genin, we aren't ready for this level of combat. We should head back, and treat Naruto's wound." Sakura said.

"We need to get the poison out as soon as possible." AJ said, agreeing with her.

"Naruto's hand could become a problem. I guess we should go back to the village." Kakashi said.

'That tone he used… no! Don't say that! Don't make the kid try to keep going you-'

"Agh!" Naruto shouted and they all looked to see Naruto stab his hand with a kunai knife.

'AH! He just… took the… poison out… Stupid smart kid…'

"Why am I so different?" Naruto asked himself. "Why am I always… AGH!"

"Naruto! Stop that! What are you doing!?" Sakura asked.

"I worked so hard to get here! Pushing myself until it hurt! I trained alone for hours! Anything to get stronger, to reach my dream! I will never back down again, and let someone else rescue me! I will never run away, and I will not lose to Sasuke! Upon this wound I make this pledge, believe it! Bridge Builder, I'll complete this mission, and protect you with this kunai knife! A real ninja never gives up, and neither will I!" Naruto said with finality.

…

"Well, that was real cool the way you took the poison out and all but…" Kakashi started.

"Take the knife out and stop the bleeding already you moron!" AJ finished.

"Yeah. If you lose any more blood you're going to die." Kakashi stated.

"Someone likes to be dramatic and cliché." Neko commented.

"Yeah, I have a feeling I'm gonna hear a lot of those lines from this kid if he doesn't die… Wait… what took you so long to finally say something?" AJ said to the cat on his shoulder. Neko simply shrugged.

"I think it's because I was usually in your mind just watching. I didn't usually get to, or really need too, talk, so I just don't." Neko guessed.

"Well it's not like I said you can't, go ahead if you want too." AJ said.

"Ok, but don't be surprised if I have bouts of 'not talking'." Neko warned.

"Why are you talking to the cat?" Tazuna asked the young man giving him a weird look.

"I used a Jutsu on him so I can understand him. Unfortunately ONLY I can understand him, so that's why I talk to the cat, because he can talk back." AJ explained and wasn't all that surprised to see the old man not really believe him.

Naruto began panicking about "not wanting to die this way" and stuff, Kakashi looked at the wound while Sakura accused Naruto of being a masochist, and Kakashi and AJ both noticed the wound Naruto had just heal in seconds.

"Uh… you guys are looking really seriously at the wound… am I gonna be ok?" Naruto asked, fearing for his life.

"Oh! Yeah, you'll be fine!" Kakashi said calmly as he put bandages on the wound.

* * *

They went on to the sea and onto a boat… more like a canoe with an engine, which they weren't using.

"Man, this fog is so thick." Sakura commented.

"You could probably cut it with a knife." AJ said casually to himself and pulled out a kunai and cut a circle out of the fog, he looked at the slice of fog he now held in his hands before Neko ate it. 'I've said it a thousand times, but this world is weirder than Remnant.'

"The bridge isn't far now." The man rowing the boat said. "Our destination is just ahead, The Land of Waves."

The unfinished bridge came into view since they had gotten _really_ close to it.

"Whoa! It's huge!" Naruto yelled even louder than normal, looking up at the large bridge currently being built.

"Quiet! I told you, no noise!" The man commented. "Why do you think we're traveling like this huh? Cutting off the engine and rowing, moving through the dense fog, so they don't see us."

Naruto was now covering his mouth.

"I swear if that gets us killed I am going to kill you." AJ said to Naruto, who leaned away.

"That doesn't make any sense." Neko commented.

"I'm aware of that…" AJ quietly deadpanned.

"Mr. Tazuna. Before we reach the pier, I want to ask you something. The men who are after you, I need to know why. If you don't tell us, I'm afraid I will have to end this mission when we drop you ashore." Kakashi threatened.

"I have no choice but to tell you." Tazuna said after a long pause. "No, I want you to know the truth. Like you said, this is beyond the scope of the original mission. The one who seeks my life is a very short man, who casts a very long and deadly shadow."

"A deadly shadow?" Kakashi parroted, confused.

"Who is this guy?" AJ asked.

"You may have heard his name before, he's one of the wealthiest men in the world, the shipping magnate Gato." Tazuna said.

"Gato!?" Kakashi asked shocked. "Of Gato Transport? He's a business leader, everyone knows him!"

"Who!? X2 What!? X2" Naruto asked.

"Of course he doesn't know." Neko commented.

"Gato is a very power man from a famous company, that's true. But below the surface are the same ruthless methods he uses to take over business and nations. He sells drugs and contraband, using gangs and ninja. It was one year ago, when Gato first set his sights on the land of waves. He came to the island and used his vast wealth to take control of our transport and shipping. Anyone that tried to stand in his way simply disappeared. In an island nation, a man who controls the sea controls everything. Finance, government, our very lives! But there is one thing he fears, the bridge. When it is formed we won't have to rely on him and the sea anymore! It will break his control over us!"

"And you are the bridge builder that makes it all possible." AJ noted.

"So you're standing in his way." Sakura also noted.

"So those guys in the forest, they were working for Gato." Sasuke also noted.

Naruto is too confused to have anything else to add to the notes.

"I don't get it, if you knew he was dangerous, knew he would come after you, why then did you lie to us?" Kakashi asked.

"I can take one easy guess. You can't afford it?" AJ asked Tazuna.

Tazuna nodded. "Yes, even our nobles are poor. There is just no way we can afford a B ranked mission. We are a small impoverished nation. Simply, if you end this mission when you drop me off, there will be no bridge." Tazuna stated.

"Well lucky for you Naruto insisted on doing this." AJ said, annoyed that he had to do this.

"Oh no, it's ok! Don't feel bad! Of course my sweet little grandson will be upset, he'll cry. 'Granddad! I want my Granddad'!" Tazuna mimicked.

"Like I said, we're doing this already, so don't bother." AJ said.

"Oh, and my daughter will condemn the ninja of the Hidden Leaves. Denouncing and blaming you for leaving her without a father and living her life in sorrow." Tazuna continued.

"Look! We're already doing this mission! If you keep it up with the stupid guilt trip I might just change my mind!" AJ said angrily.

"Quiet down!" The man rowing ordered.

"Heh, I know, I know. I was just messing with you!" Tazuna said smiling.

AJ sighed in exasperation.

"We're app _row_ ching the shore." The rowing man stated. (Get it? Row?) "Tazuna, we've been very fortunate. No one has noticed us so far." He stated as they went into a tunnel designed just for boats to get through.

The tunnel would have been dark but there were small lights in a line along the ceiling, the world does at least have electricity. When they came out the other side, it was a massive change from the scary fog they were in. Now it was only partially cloudy, the sun shining brightly down on them and the small town you see the moment you get out of the tunnel. Various trees suited for the water grow from out of the water, their vines disappearing under the water and holding them above it. They pulled up to the pier and got out, leaving the boat man alone in his boat.

"That's as far as I go. Good luck." The man stated.

"Right, thank you for taking such a risk." Tazuna said to him.

"Just be careful." He replied before turning on the engine they hadn't been using and leaving.

"Ok. Take me to my home, and I mean get me there in one piece!" Tazuna ordered.

"We'll take care of it." AJ replied with a confident nod.

"Yeah! We won't let you down!" Naruto stated confidently.

* * *

They headed out from the town back into the forest. Awhile into it Naruto suddenly jumped out in front of them, looking for something.

"Over there!" Naruto shouted and threw a kunai into the bushes, shocking everyone present, especially AJ since he knew no one was there.

'What is this idiot doing!?'

"It was just a mouse." Naruto said.

"Mouse!? Yeah right! Everyone can see through your stupid act! You're so obvious it's embarrassing!" Sakura said angrily, pointing at the blond.

"Naruto! Those are kunai knives! They're dangerous!" Kakashi said angrily.

"STOP TRYING TO SCARE ME YOU SCRUMPY LITTLE DWARF!" Tazuna yelled.

Sasuke was only mildly annoyed.

AJ was breathing in and out to calm himself, also focusing on the new person nearby.

"Hey! Is there someone over there? No! Over there!" Naruto said to himself, AJ sensed Kakashi realizing their new friend's presence when Naruto shocked AJ by actually throwing a Kanai _at_ the new presence through the bushes.

"That's it Naruto!" Sakura shouted and hit him over the head.

"Why'd you do that? Someone really is following us, I mean it!" Naruto complained, nursing the bruise on his head.

'How did he know that?'

"Naruto! Look what you did!" Sakura said, pointing at the terrified white rabbit he almost hit with the second throw.

'There was someone there, now he's behind us, where did the rabbit come from?'

"Ah! I'm sorry little rabbit! I'm so sorry!" Naruto said, hugging the poor rabbit.

"All this fuss over a rodent?" Tazuna commented.

'Poor Kakashi, coming to a slow realization while I already know what's going on.' "Get down!" AJ shouted.

"Look out!" Kakashi shouted a spilt second after AJ started.

A massive spinning blade flew at them and they all ducked to avoid it. The blade went and hit a tree nearby and the man landed on the handle and stood on it high up in the tree, looking down at them.

The man had a white mask over the bottom half of his face, baggy jeans, white camo guards, maybe, on his ankles and the same white camo on his lower arms, he wore no shirt, his headband was on his head but the front was slightly to his left, it had four marks on it, indicating he's from the Village Hidden in the Mist, but it had a line cut right through it from right to left. He did have a dark strap around his neck that went down to his left side connecting to his pants.

"Well if it isn't Zabuza Momochi, rogue ninja from the Village Hidden in the Mist." Kakashi said to the man, Zabuza.

AJ stopped Naruto before he could run past him. "Don't bother, you can't even begin to compete with this guy."

"He's in a whole other level compared to you." Kakashi added. "If he's our opponent, I might need this." He said as he reached up to pull up his headband that always blocked his left eye. "This could be treacherous."

"You got me with you though, so don't worry." AJ said walking up next to Kakashi.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan eye… did I get that right?" Zabuza asked.

"Oh look, he knows you." AJ commented, smiling now as the fight was about to begin.

"It's too bad, but you're gonna have to give me the old man." Zabuza said.

"Yeah, no. Animal Fusion Jutsu!" AJ shouted, Neko disappearing from his shoulder. Eyes, changing to green with gold flecks, gaining cat ears on his head and a tail as well.

"Mangi Formation! Protect the bridge builder!" Kakashi ordered to the squad. "And stay out of this fight! I taught you teamwork, now it's time to use it!"

Kakashi pulled up his headband, revealing a scar right down his eye, which opened to reveal the iris was red, and surrounded by three black curving marks, like commas.

"Well, looks like a get to see the Sharingan eye in action. This is an honor." Zabuza said, turning to them from on his sword.

"Everyone keeps saying Sharingan! Sharingan! Would someone please tell me what the heck that is!?" Naruto demanded.

"Sharingan." Sasuke started. "A rare power… It resides in the eyes. The user of this visual Jutsu, or Dojutsu, can instantly see and comprehend any Ninjutsu, Genjutsu, or Taijutsu. Then reflect the attack back at the attacker. The Sharingan is a special, rare form of Dojutsu. However, there's more to the Sharingan than that, a lot more." He finished.

"You got it right boy, you do only scratch the surface. The Sharingan can analyze and person's technique, and copy it to the smallest detail." Zabuza explained. Just then a fog rolled in, making it more difficult to see.

"And you Jonin, in the assassination unit of the Hidden Mist, we had a standing order to destroy you on sight. You're profile was in our Bingo Book, it called you the man who copied over a thousand Jutsu: Kakashi the Copy Ninja."

'Wow, I knew Kakashi was special, but they _really_ want him dead!'

"Wow! That's so cool!" Naruto commented.

"I think we've talked long enough! I need to exterminate the old man, now!" Zabuza yelled.

The three Genin took the Mangi formation in front of Tazuna, kunai out.

"So… Kakashi and this… young man are the ones I have to take out first? So be it!" Zabuza said. AJ was tired of waiting and went to move when Zabuza suddenly grabbed the ridiculously large sword he was standing on and dashed away with it, now standing on the water nearby.

"He's standing on the water!?" Sakura shouted.

'That's a lot of chakra he's building up if the water around him is flying.'

"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu!" Zabuza said and the mist surrounding them suddenly grew much thicker.

"He'll come after me first, be ready to react, Shin." Kakashi said, taking a step forward.

"You know I will." AJ said, getting excited.

"Zabuza Momochi, the ex-leader of the Hidden Mist assassination unit. He's a master of the silent killing technique.

"3 O'clock!" AJ shouted and Kakashi threw a shuriken to his right.

"Now 9!" AJ shouted as he threw a shuriken right after Kakashi's weapon went into a bush. There was a clang sound of metal hitting metal.

"You're a smart one, kid… wonder how you know where I am?" Zabuza commented.

'He doesn't sound like it, but he's scared of how I know.'

"Don't lower your guard." Kakashi said to the kids.

"The mist is getting thicker and thicker!" Naruto noticed.

"The Land of Waves is surrounded by ocean. The mist is ever-present." Tazuna said.

"Sensei! Shin!" Sakura said as the mist became too thick to even see a few feet ahead to Kakashi and AJ.

"Eight Points… Larynx, Spine, Lungs, Liver, Jugular, Subclavian Artery, Kidneys, Heart. Now, which will be my kill point?" Zabuza's voice echoed.

"That's cute and all, but you don't scare me when I know where you are." AJ commented.

"Oh really? Why don't you do something about it then?" Zabuza asked.

Kakashi suddenly let out a burst of chakra with a focusing hand sign and it blew the fog away from around them.

 _Fear_

"Sasuke, calm down!" AJ demanded.

"I will protect you all with me life! I promise! I will not allow my comrades to die, trust me." Kakashi said, smiling at them.

"I wouldn't be so sure." Zabuza's voice rang out and AJ suddenly threw a Kunai right at Tazuna.

Before the Kunai could cause any friendly fire, Zabuza appeared in between all three students, and was hit with the kunai, causing water to come out of him before he/it turned into water a disappeared. The three Genin and Tazuna all scattered the moment they had a chance to move.

'Good thing even a clone gives off emotions.'

"You're a fast one, forget kid, you are worthy of being called 'young man'." Zabuza said before appearing behind AJ. "But are you worthy of being called ninja!?" AJ spun around and tried to counter but it was too late and he was hit with the massive blade, sent flying away.

"What!? How did I not cut you in half!?" Zabuza asked as AJ landed in a roll. "No clone, no substitution, what did you do then?" Zabuza asked the boy as he stood up, grinning up at him.

'Time to reach a bit deeper into my Aura than just casual healing and defense.' AJ thought before letting out his Aura, a white mist flowing off of him lightly. Despite how calm it seemed, it was pushing away the mist around him as he slowly approached Zabuza, grinning madly.

"So much for going for you first, eh Kakashi?" AJ commented. Kakashi suddenly stood next to Zabuza with a kunai knife to his neck.

"Eh, right." Kakashi said, chuckling. "It's over." He said to Zabuza.

"There isn't a scratch on him!" Sakura commented.

"Not even on his clothes…" Naruto noted.

"No Kakashi! That's a clone too!" AJ said when he saw Kakashi reappear.

"What!?" Kakashi said, surprised, before the Zabuza in front of him turned to water, and the real one appeared behind him.

"Now die!" Zabuza shouted as he swung his sword, only to be met by Nipzona, AJ's sword. "I was wondering when you would use that thing." Zabuza said angrily to the shortsword wielder. (Reminder, the blade is identical to a Glass Sword in Skyrim, and it's a silent P)

"Hey, usually kunai are good enough." AJ commented, smiling at his opponent. Normally he wouldn't be in the mood for banter, but he hadn't let loose in awhile, and it was too exciting for him to not exchange with the enemy.

Zabuza saw an opening and quickly kicked Kakashi away, but had to turn his attention to AJ who was protecting Kakashi now. Zabuza was able to dodge the swings from the small in comparison blade, and finding a moment in the chaos, he swung his large blade at AJ.

AJ ducked to avoid it, then stood up to lunge out again, only to be kicked just as hard as Kakashi was, into the water. He quickly surfaced, noticing the water was dense. 'Man, that guy kicks hard…'

"Water Prison Jutsu!"

"No!" Kakashi panicked.

"Shit!" AJ yelled as they were both trapped in a cramped ball of water.

They both looked up at Zabuza, who had his right hand in the prison, keeping it there as he stood on the water. "It may be water, but this prison is stronger than steel. It's hard to fight when you can't move." Zabuza said.

'Got a point. I can't build up charka and force my way out, using Aura would get his attention and make it harder to get out, hell he might just kill us then.' "Sorry about that Kakashi, got lost in my excitement and didn't see the kick coming. The one that hit you, or the one that hit me…"

"So much for the great Kakashi, and the young man as well… Shin, I think you said? I'll finish you both later. For now, your little friends will have to be eliminated. Water Clone Jutsu!" Zabuza said and the water in one spot built up into a clone of himself, it could only take one hit, but those kids wouldn't be able to do anything to it.

"You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja?" The clone spoke now. "When you've hovered between life and death so many times it doesn't even faze you, then you may call yourselves ninja! When you've become so deadly your profile is entered in my Bingo Book, then you may be called ninja! But to call upstarts like you, ninja? It's a joke!"

"He disappeared again!" Sakura commented before Naruto was hit in the face and sent flying away, losing his headband in the process.

"You're just brats!" The clone said, now stepping on the headband.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried out.

"Listen! Get the bridge builder and run! You can't win this fight!" Kakashi yelled. "He's using all his power to keep us in this prison, so he can only fight you with the water clone! But the clone can't go far from his real body, if you get away from him, he can't follow! Now run!"

"Don't worry about us! When we get out, we'll take this guy down! Just go!" AJ yelled.

He hoped to hell Naruto would listen, oddly enough Sasuke seemed to disagree while Naruto was just frozen in fear, but why did Sasuke think they could fight this guy?

Sasuke ran out at the clone, throwing shuriken. The clone swung his sword in front of him to block the throwing stars, which is what Sasuke wanted, using the chance to jump at him, only to be grabbed by the throat and thrown back.

"Damn it! Why don't you run!? I can take care of Kakashi when we get out! Just leave already!" AJ demanded.

"Sasuke, no!" Sakura cried out.

"He got Sasuke!..." Naruto said, fearing for his life.

Naruto had tried to run before remembering his oath, the wound he caused himself to get the poison out, and remembering how he said he would never run away… so he did his usual obvious charge and stupid battle cry. He was kicked hard by the clone and send back to the others, that was what he wanted. Now he that he had gotten his headband back he put it back on.

'Cause that kick was totally worth the headband… idiot…'

"Hey you, the freak with no eyebrows." Naruto said angrily. "Put this in your Bingo Book! The ninja that will become Hokage of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, he never back's down. His name is Naruto Uzumaki!" He finished with his defiant grin. "Alright, listen up Sasuke, can you hear me?"

"Yeah I hear you."

"I've got a plan!"

"So you're finally thinking about teamwork, huh?"

"Alright now guys… lets go wild!" Naruto exclaimed.

'Good luck, stupid kids.'

"Ok, ready? Let's bring this guy down!"

"Big words for such a small man." The Zabuza clone said, chuckling. "You think your plan is going to keep you in the game?"

'I'm curious as to what his plan is, if it's gonna be anything good, which it probably won't if Naruto thought it up.'

"What are you doing!? I told you to run! This fight was over the moment we got caught! Now take off!" Kakashi yelled. "Your mission is not to prove how brave you are! Your mission is to protect Tazuna! Stay on mission!"

"Bridge Builder?" Naruto asked, turning over his shoulder to look at Tazuna.

"Well I, I guess… this all happened because of me, because of my desire to life. I won't let that stand in your way now. Forget about me and do what you have to do! Go ahead and fight to save your teammate! And your Sensei!" Tazuna said.

"Well, you hear that?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah! You ready?" Naruto responded.

The clone simply started laughing. "You really haven't learned anything, have you? Still playing your little game? Pretending to be ninja? When I was your age, this hand had already crushed many opponents!"

"Ignore him! Don't listen to him! Forget your fear and just fight!" AJ said, realizing Zabuza was trying to scare them.

"Right!" Naruto said, looking at the water prison for a moment before turning back to the fight.

"If you say so." Zabuza's clone said, before elbow charging Sasuke suddenly and then hitting him while he was down, making him cough up blood. He began crushing Sasuke with his foot and reaching for his sword.

"Stop! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto yelled and surrounded Zabuza with clones. "Here we go!" The clones all said, pulling out kunai.

The clones all piled on top of Zabuza, but he spun around and took them all out.

"I'm not giving up! I've still got _this_!" Naruto said as he slid away, reaching into his backpack and throwing something to Sasuke. "Sasuke!"

"Got it!" Sasuke said, catching the blade and spinning. The blade spun into four blades, all connected at the middle, making a windmill shape.

"Demon Wind Shuriken: Windmill of Shadows!" Sasuke said, holding onto something similar to a large shuriken.

"A shuriken? You'll never touch me with that!" The clone stated, chuckling.

Sasuke jumped into the air before throwing the blade… right past the clone!

"So… you aimed past the clone for my real body. Smart." Zabuza said. "But not smart enough!" He said as he caught the shuriken. "A second shuriken in the shadow of the first!?" Zabuza yelled, seeing the second shuriken about to hit him, which he jumped over. "You still can't hit me!"

"Wait… what!?" AJ shouted, turning to the shuriken that missed.

"Behind you! Believe it!" The second shuriken went past him, and went up in a puff of white smoke, revealing it was actually Naruto, who threw a kunai, forcing Zabuza to let go of the prison to dodge it, actually still suffering a small cut just below his right eye, it went past and took out the clone as well.

Zabuza turned to Naruto, who was still in the air and went to throw the shuriken that he caught at Naruto. Kakashi and AJ both jumped out of the prison, AJ blocking the blade before it could be thrown, with his sword, while Kakashi kicked him in the face, sending _him_ flying this time!

"Kakashi Sensei! Shin!" Sakura yelled happily.

Naruto finally surfaced. "You guys ok?"

"We should be asking you that!" AJ answered, smiling at Naruto for the first time anyone had ever seen. "I am pleasantly surprised! Nice plan you had there!" He said, nodding at Naruto.

"Haha! I knew my clones couldn't beat him, but while the clones fought him I turned into a Demon Wind Shuriken! He didn't know what to do!" Naruto said proudly, despite being soaked.

"It was an excellent plan Naruto." Kakashi said proudly.

"I got distracted and lost my grip on the water prison." Zabuza said, getting back up and glaring at Kakashi, who still stood on the water, and AJ, who had gotten back on the shore.

AJ laughed at the lame defense Zabuza gave.

"Don't flatter yourself. You were distracted, you were forced to let go!" Kakashi said, facing his opponent.

'Oops, Zabuza is pissed.'

"Your technique worked on me once, it won't work again." Kakashi said.

"Same here." AJ added.

"So? Shall we continue?" Kakashi asked.

Zabuza responded by pulling back the shuriken and throwing it… at AJ.

AJ looked at the approaching spinning blade curiously, head tilted, before glaring at it and letting his Aura flow again, then catching the weapon easily.

"That might have worked if you had thrown it at Naruto… Now get this shit out of here!" AJ yelled, throwing the weapon as hard as he could away from the battle, gone in an instant. Now he was back to glaring at Zabuza. He had had his fun, now he just wanted this guy dead.

Zabuza went back to looking at Kakashi, and started making handsigns… lots of them.

"Inu Tori Saru Hitsuji Ne Tori Uma Ne Tori Saru"

And he just kept going, but Kakashi had the Sharingan and was quickly able to match him, AJ's eyes glowed faintly for a moment before he began doing the handsigns as well.

"""U Saru Tori Tatsu Mi Ushi Inu Tori Ne Inu Uma Itsuji Ne Tatsu Tora Uma Tori!"""

"""Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!"""

The water burst out in the shape of three dragons that slammed into each other, washing Naruto onto the shore in the process, while also drenching Sasuke, Sakura, and Tazuna who were a distance from the shore.

The two on one dragon fight led to Zabuza getting hit pretty quickly, and as the dragons fell Zabuza and Kakashi were at a standstill on the water, small kunai clashing with massive blade.

"Ah, that Jutsu was fun!" AJ exclaimed excitedly as he slowed his breathing.

A tired Zabuza, from getting beaten down by a water dragon, was soon wiped out by the Giant Vortex Jutsu that Kakashi performed, slamming him into a tree way inland, _then_ getting hit by multiple kunai.

"You're finished." Kakashi said as the water receded, as he now stood on a tree above Zabuza.

"How!? Can you… see into the future!?" Zabuza asked.

'Geez Kakashi… what did you do to him?'

"Yes. This is your last battle, ever!" Kakashi answered, holding up a kunai.

AJ suddenly pulled out a kunai and held it back hand in front of him, looking to the left. "Someone's there, Kakashi!"

Two needles suddenly pierced Zabuza's neck.

"Oh shit!" AJ exclaimed.

"You were right, it was his last battle." A voice said, laughing lightly.

"Wait, so… friendly?" AJ asked the woman, keeping on guard.

She wore a mask over her face, with the Hidden Mist sign on it, and wore a dress/kimono thing.

Kakashi went down to check the body.

"Yes. Friendly." She said quietly to AJ.

"No vital signs. Shin?" Kakashi asked AJ.

"Nope. He's dead." AJ said.

"I'm curious as to how you know that while you are still glaring at me." The woman commented. "Thank you. I've been tracking Zabuza for a long time." She said, bowing to Kakashi from up in a tree. "Waiting for this chance to finally take him down."

 _Relief_

"Judging by your mask, I'd say you're a tracker from the Village Hidden in the Mist." Kakashi said.

"Impressive. You're well informed." The woman said.

"A tracker!" Naruto said, jumping up to fight.

"Naruto, you don't even know what that is." Sakura commented. "You missed the lesson on it as usual. Tracker is a special role, try coming to class sometime. When a rogue ninja breaks away from his village it carries all kind of secrets with it. Secrets of its people, which are what Trackers are trained to find and dispose of, by killing the ninja rogue."

"That's correct." The woman said. "I am a member of the elite tracking unit of the Hidden Mist. It was my duty to stop Zabuza.

'Hang on… remember Kakashi's training… whoa what!? It's a guy, isn't it!? Sounds like a girl to me!'

"Naruto, stop!" AJ demanded, noticing Naruto was angry. The blonde kept glaring at the guy.

"What is this? Who do you think you are!" Naruto yelled, pointing at the guy.

"Zabuza is dead, Naruto! This guy is not our enemy!" AJ yelled.

"That's not the point! This guy just took out Zabuza just like that!? This guy was powerful, like some kind of monster and this kid who's no bigger than me brought down Zabuza with one move! Like it was nothing! I mean… what does that make us!? We were just fumbling around! We don't know anything!" Naruto was shut up by AJ approaching him.

"This guy had a perfect shot and took it! We didn't have that perfect shot! We never had the opportunity to take him out in one hit because we were in the fight! This guy wasn't!" AJ yelled, pointing at the masked ninja.

Kakashi walked up to Naruto and put a hand on his head. "I get it, you hate that he's stronger than you. But in this world, there are kids who are younger than you, but stronger than me."

The boy teleported over and scooped up Zabuza's body. "Your struggle is over for now. I however, must deal with the remains. There are many secrets in this body, they must not be allowed to get into the wrong hands. Please excuse me, farewell." He said before using a Jutsu to teleport away.

"He's gone, Naruto. Let it go." Kakashi said to Naruto as he went to run angrily at where the boy once was.

"What are we doing here!?" Naruto growled as he got on his knees and punched the ground.

"As ninja, the things we encounter are never easy. Save your anger, for the next enemy." Kakashi said as he grabbed the blonde's arm. "The mission isn't over yet, we still need to get the bridge builder to his bridge."

"Haha! Sorry I caused all this trouble for ya! Haha! But uh… you can rest at my place when we get to the village!" Tazuna said.

"Alright! Let's get a move on!" Kakashi said and started walking, then suddenly collapsed.

"What happened!?" Sakura yelled as they ran up to him.

"He overused his Sharingan." AJ answered. "He needs rest, let's get going. I'll carry him." He said as he picked up Kakashi's unconscious body.

* * *

Eventually they were able to get to Tazuna's home town and his house. His daughter was welcoming. Main problem though:

"I have to sleep with them!?" AJ yelled, pointing with one arm at the squad.

"Believe me, I don't like this either…" Sakura complained.

"Sorry, but we only have one spare room." Tuzuna's daughter, whose name is Tsunami, said politely.

The room was completely bare and had one large window opposite of the door.

"Well! Might as well settle in!" Naruto said, throwing out his sleeping bag in the middle of the empty room.

"Nope." AJ said simply and grabbed his sleeping bag, throwing it into the far right corner, the one opposite the door.

"Hey!" Naruto complained.

"We all get one corner of the room." AJ said to them.

"Geez Shin. Who died and made you leader?" Naruto complained.

"Well, Kakashi fell unconscious, and I made myself leader. I could fight you all at once if I needed to prove my place." AJ threatened.

"Why not just share the room Kakashi Sensei is in?" Sakura asked.

"Not enough room." AJ answered.

Sakura groaned before her and Sasuke complied and put their sleeping bags in the far left and near left corners respectively, AJ taking the near right.

They went back to check on Kakashi since it wasn't late yet.

Kakashi groaned as he woke up, realizing he overdid his Sharingan.

"Finally waking up, huh?" Tsunami said, seeing his eye open. "Are you alright?"

"I've been better." Kakashi answered and groaned, trying to sit up, which he succeeded in doing. "It'll be a week before I can move normally.

"It's better if you don't move, so just lie down." Tsunami requested.

"Right." Kakashi accepted and lied back down.

"Look, the Sensei is coming around." Naruto said as the team, and Tazuna, made it to the room.

"Listen Sensei, your Sharingan is amazing and everything, but if it puts that much strain on your body then maybe it's not worth it." Sakura said, getting to her knee's next to his lying form, mostly hidden under a blanket.

"Sorry." Kakashi said.

"Huh! Well, he did take down one of the most powerful ninja assassins so we'll be safe for awhile." Tazuna commented.

"But that boy with the mask, what about him?" Sakura asked.

"Those masks are only worn by the most elite Shinobi, he is definitely from the tracking unit of the Village Hidden in the Mist." Kakashi said.

"What exactly do they do?" Sakura asked.

"The Anbu Black Ops, also known as the Inferno Squad, destroy all traces of a rogue ninja's corpse. The ninja's body contains many hidden secrets, Ninjustu, Chakra, special medicines used on his body. These are the secrets of his village, if his enemies were to find them, his village would be in great danger. For instance, if I were to die at the hands of an enemy, they could possibly recreate and use my Sharingan against our village. It is the sacred duty of the Ninja Trackers to prevent this, keep those secrets safe. The Trackers hunt down rogue ninja and obliterate all trace of his existence, that's their specialty. Shin, I wanted to ask you, what did you think of him?" Kakashi asked AJ.

"Well… he seemed relieved when he killed Zabuza, but something felt off about it… I can't quite pin it down though." AJ answered.

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked AJ.

"That's a secret I'd rather not tell." AJ said, smiling at her irritation.

"Hey, are you ok?" Naruto asked Kakashi.

"Oh yeah, as I was saying. Trackers always take care of the body immediately. They-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, red flag there." AJ interrupted. "He didn't deal with the body immediately, he left with it."

"Exactly, and think of the weapons he used for the takedown. Do you remember what they were?" Kakashi asked.

"Throwing needles… no way!" Sasuke was slowly coming to the realization.

"Exactly, none of that adds up." Kakashi noted.

"What are you all yammering about?" Tazuna asked. "You demolished that assassin!"

"Here's the truth: Zabuza is still alive." Kakashi said, shocking everyone in the room but AJ.

"I knew I should have killed that boy while I had the chance." AJ said angrily.

"But we saw his body! Believe It!"

"Kakashi Sensei! You checked him yourself! You said his heart stopped!" Sakura noted.

"His heart did stop. Me and Shin didn't know he wasn't fully dead, because he _was_ dead, but it was a state of temporary death. Something me and Shin won't be able to tell the difference from. The needles he used are called Senbon. They are only lethal if you hit a vital organ, not in the neck. Trackers are trained to know every detail of the human body. Putting someone in a temporary state of death would be easy for them." Kakashi said.

"They're that good huh?" AJ commented.

"He carried the body away, he used a non-lethal attack, with these two things, we can conclude he was trying to save Zabuza, not kill him." Kakashi concluded.

"Come on! You're overthinking this, aren't you?" Tazuna asked hopefully.

"'Encountering suspicion, the ninja prepares quickly, hesitation leads to disaster.' Every Shinobi knows this saying." Kakashi gave his answer.

"Yep! Should have killed him!" AJ said, crossing his arms in anger. 'Great, Naruto's just excited he gets another chance.'

"Sensei, you said 'prepare quickly', how are we supposed to prepare quickly when you can barely move!?" Sakura asked and Kakashi laughed.

"I can still train you."

"Hold on! A little last minute training won't change the fact that we can't beat that guy! You could barely take him down even with your Sharingan, and you had Shin helping you, who apparently is a very good fighter, so how could we help!?" Sakura asked.

"I only won with your guy's help. If you all improve, you are even more of a help the next time we fight." Kakashi explained. "You all have grown quite a bit, and Naruto, you've grown the most."

Naruto chuckled proudly. "So you noticed, Kakashi Sensei!? Now things are going to get better, believe it!"

"I don't believe it! And nothing's going to be good!" They all turned around to see Tsunami's son, Inari, looking angry at them.

"Inari! Where've you been!?" Tazuna asked happily.

"I'm back grandpa!" The young boy said as he jumped into a hug with Tazuna.

"Inari! That was very rude!" Tsunami said in the usual angry mother voice. "These ninja protected your grandpa and brought him here safely!"

"It's ok, it's ok! I'm rude to them too!" Tazuna said with a laugh.

"Mom, don't you see these people are gonna die! Gato and his men will find them and wipe them out!" Inari said.

"What did you say, brat!?" Naruto yelled, standing up quickly. "Listen up! You know what a Super Ninja is? Well it's me, but only a whole lot better, I'm-

"Getting really tired of hearing your voice, and your speeches, and your Hokage crap!" AJ said after hitting Naruto over the head.

"The point I was getting at!" Naruto said and glared at AJ. "Is that this Gato isn't a match for a hero, like me!"

"Ha! There's no such thing as heroes! You're just full of stupid ideas!" Inari said before leaving.

'Wow… he feels really strongly about heroes. Wonder what the story is behind that?'

"Inari, wait. Where are you going?" Tazuna asked.

"To go look out at the ocean! I want to be alone!" Inari said as he opened the sliding doors.

"Sorry about that." Tazuna pardoned.

"It's fine. But Shin, I actually think you should tell them about that secret you mentioned." Kakashi requested.

"WAIT I HAVE TO!?" AJ shouted similar to how Naruto would, absolutely caught off guard.

"Yes, they might as well know." Kakashi answered.

AJ sighed. "Fine. Big reveal! I can sense emotion." AJ said uncaringly.

"Wait what?" Naruto asked.

"You can… sense emotions?" Sakura asked the obvious, as always.

"Hmm… that's would explain how you knew where Zabuza was at all times, even in the mist, right?" Sasuke asked.

"Yes, I know what emotion and where it's coming from. Subtle or dramatic changes in emotion tell me if an attack is coming from the attacker, and I always know where emotion is coming from within a certain range of me. I can only sense human emotions though." AJ explained. "Basically I will always know where you are no matter how well you hide!"

"That's so cool!" Naruto commented.

'So that's how he got me back at the Village.' Sasuke realized angrily. Thinking back to how bad he lost to AJ in that fight.

"Is that a Jutsu? How can you do that?" Sakura asked.

"That's the part that stays secret, you don't need to know." AJ answered.

"well that's quite a useful ability you have there!" Tazuna commented.

"To always know where the enemy is, an invaluable trait. I trained him so he wouldn't tell me if someone is nearby, or even react to the knowledge of it. This guarantees that at least one person won't be caught off guard in an ambush, but the enemy will never know that he knows, because if he talked to me, the enemy might realize he's been found. He can also just call out the ambush, giving us warning the moment before we're hit." Kakashi explained.

"And the ability to predict attacks, how much you get just from sensing and understanding emotions is incredible!" Sakura said.

"It's not as good as my Sharingan, where I can see the technique, but he at least knows that something is coming, and basic readings of body language can give away the rest more often than not." Kakashi added.

"So since I could sense no emotion coming from Zabuza, that meant he was dead, only he wasn't permanently dead." AJ explained. "And that Tracker boy, his emotions felt… off… But I noticed he was relieved, so I assumed he was glad his hunt was over. No, he was just glad he saved his friend." 'I can feel how incredibly sad Inari is right now.'

"Alright, well, I can't move yet, so training will begin tomorrow." Kakashi said.

"Alright." Squad 7 said.

* * *

 **And that's the end of the chapter since this one's gone on long enough.**

 **BIG NEWS: Starting after the next chapter, I don't have any chapters already made! So, I will, after so long, be settling back into a weekly or biweekly update period. I'll try for weekly, but do my best to make sure I never take longer than two weeks to get a chapter out. I also can't guarantee that the chapter I post will be on this story, I might post something else, just warning you.**

 **Anyway, follow, fav, review but only if you have something to nice to say OR CONTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. No flaming, no complaining about my OC, just don't, ok?**

 **Have a good day.**


	3. Running Up Trees 101

**Sorry for taking so long to post this one. It was ready, but then life got annoying and I drew something remotely good and I got all confident and tried to become my own fanartist. (Cause I really want to have some fanart of my OC's and figured I was really the best person to do it) HOLY SHIT I HAVE DISGRACED MY FAMILY I AM NEVER TRYING THAT AGAIN. Seriously, that was frustrating and cringe worthy and just… god that was terrible. I want to purge that from my mind so I can stop hating everyone else that can actually draw…**

 **And I just tried to fix the two-way misunderstanding that I'm having with a "Guest", and he/she hasn't responded so I don't know what to do now…**

 **Also, anyone here hasn't read the first two books of Fate, you really should.**

 **On with the story!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own or claim to own RWBY, Naruto, the song I use for the intro, or anything else that I use or reference. I do own the OC(s) of course.**

* * *

Tortured Soul Ch.3

* * *

 _As my fingers trace the scar of this frozen bond_

AJ is shown walking along the edge of a forest at night, he doesn't have his cloak and touches two scars running down the left side of his face. He looks distant and lonely as he slowly walks along the path and stares at the ground in thought.

 _Deep within the crevice tearing my broken heart_

He shuts his eyes tight as tears fall out of them and he sobs quietly.

 _My body is wondering on…_

 _All my thoughts evaporate into shapeless dark_

He opens his eyes and a few tears continue to fall but now he looks very angry as he grits his teeth and glares up at the camera.

 _Faded like the past decays in a memory_

His eyes turn red and his teeth grow sharp. He turns back to normal as he suddenly snaps his head in the direction of the forest and catches a glimpse of someone that looked like Blake.

 _Now I search for an illusion_

He runs frantically through the forest looking in every direction for her and eventually comes to a small clearing and falls to his knees and cries again. He keeps his mouth shut tight gritting his teeth together, he also keeps his eyes shut tight but once again tears get through.

 _I will try to wield power over destiny…_

 _In the world that shined for me_

White Aura blasted out of him and he stood up and rushed further into the forest still frantically searching.

 _My memories live on_

He thought about teams RWBY and JNPR and the things they had done together.

 _Forgotten dreams call out_

He stopped for a moment and looked around.

 _To stars that I once wished upon_

He smiled as he looked up at the stars through a hole in the canopy of trees, before rushing out again.

 _Now I see the scenery_

He continued to run but now tears ran down his face as he ran.

 _Distilled inside my mind_

 _That never ending night_

Scene of him crying in his sleep.

 _And days stretch forever_

Scene of him walking around the village looking distant.

 _Though we're far apart, you are still in my heart_

He thought about Blake again and ran faster.

 _And no mere separation_

He let out another burst of Aura and went into his second stage where his Aura took the form of see though wings behind him.

 _Will stop this light from reaching you_

Blake was visited by a white light in her dream back on Remnant.

 _A miracle_

AJ jumped out into another clearing and looked at the camera. He started building up Aura into his right hand, so much it was a light show of bright white mist so bright it actually is blinding.

 _Will finally come true_

He charged at the viewer with his lightshow of a punch.

Change scene and camera looks at a Naruto in nine tails mode covered in red chakra.

Camera turns to the Sasuke in his second stage curse mark.

Camera turns again to see AJ glaring at the two before charging at them as we hit the static part of the song they charge at each other and the screen goes black.

Tortured Soul, A multiverse Fanfiction

* * *

"I'LL DESTROY YOU, ANGEL!"

"DIE YOU FUCKING DEMON!"

AJ shot up and looked around, seeing the other members of Squad 7 were still asleep. He got up to leave the room and take a walk.

'The hell was that?... A dream? Or was it something more?... Like a memory? I don't remember what happened before I came here so… maybe…'

He walked outside and was trying not to think about Blake, but he failed as always and was now focusing more on holding back his tears. He remembered something Kakashi had told him to do if he had the chance, so he tried it.

He created his Aura bow, pointed it upwards, and disappeared. He could now be seen in the sky, falling. He had a smile on his face as he felt the wind rushing by him and through his hair. He spun in the air, creating the bow again and pointing it upward, before reappearing higher up. He repeated this a few times before he decided to point the bow at the ground to land. He wanted to stare at the stars, but knew his mind would wander then and decided to just head back to sleep.

He could pretty much fly if he wanted to, though all he really did was keep teleporting higher up into the sky, but he still felt like he was flying.

"What's that symbol on your back mean?" Naruto asked before AJ put the vest back on over his shirt, covering up his symbol.

"Don't know." AJ answered simply as he continued to pack up and get ready for the day.

"How come your cat ears and tail turned white when you fought?" Naruto asked.

"You don't need to know." AJ answered simply as he stood up and stretched before putting on his headband.

"What happens to Neko when you fuse with him?" Naruto asked.

"He goes into my mind and watches things through my eyes." AJ answered simply.

"How come you leave white feathers behind when you move really fast?" Naruto asked. "And how come the feathers disappear!? I know I put one in my pocket!" He said as he searched his pocket and found nothing.

"I don't know, honestly." AJ said truthfully. "I had a friend that left rose petals when she moved fast, she doesn't really know either." AJ added before starting to leave the room.

"What's that thing you wear around your neck? Is it a neckla-" AJ suddenly appeared in front of him and grabbed him by the throat, lifting him up to his height.

"Don't ever… mention that… again… got it!?" AJ threatened through his teeth.

He was choking Naruto too much for him to say anything so he dropped him and walked out.

"Naruto! You idiot! Don't you know if you ask questions like that you're going to ask something personal!?" Sakura scolded. She would have hit him over the head but he was already on the ground gasping for breath and rubbing his neck, hoping to help the pain go away, so she decided he didn't need to be put in more pain.

"How was I supposed to know he would flip out like that?" Naruto weakly argued, since his neck still hurt.

When they went out of the house to head into the forest where Kakashi was waiting. They couldn't find 'Shin' anywhere and when they got to the meeting place, they then saw that 'Shin' had beat them to the meeting place. Naruto wanted to try talking to him again but the glare he gave him, and the warnings Sakura gave him, led him to decide against that.

"Alright! Training starts now!" Kakashi said as the three Genin stood before him, with AJ over on the side, sitting against a tree and watching. Neko seemed to be trying to get his attention and cheer him up but was having no luck.

"Right! What're we doing!?" Naruto asked excitedly.

"Before we start, I think you need a review of Chakra, a ninja's basic source of power." Kakashi said. Kakashi had crutches under both arms to help him walk, as he was still weak from overuse of his Sharingan. "Understanding Chakra is essential."

"We know that." Sasuke pointed out.

"He's right." Naruto agreed. "A long time ago we learned about… uh… Catra!"

"Chakra…" Kakashi corrected.

'Idiot.'

"Go ahead Sakura, explain it to him." Kakashi requested.

"All right Naruto, I'll explain it simply, so _you_ can understand it!" Sakura started. AJ chuckled lightly at that burn.

"Charka is the elemental life energy a ninja uses in Jutsu, it's the source of all his power! Now this energy has two forms: Physical energy, which exists in all cells of the body, all working together. And, spiritual energy, a primal source of power which is enhanced through training and experience. These two types of chakra must be drawn out and brought together in order to perform Jutsu. There is interplay between the two, that's the key. Finally, hand signs allow charka to be focused and unleashed." Sakura explained, getting a nod of approval from AJ which no one noticed.

"Right on all points. Iruka Sensei really did have some excellent students." Kakashi complimented.

"What's the deal with all these complicated explanations!?" Naruto complained. AJ sighed. "The whole point is to learn the Jutsu, isn't it!?"

"He's got a point, Naruto's right for once." Sasuke agreed and insulted at the same time. "We already use chakra in our Jutsu."

"No, that's not the point, for you have not mastered this power yet, you've only scratched the surface!" Kakashi countered.

"What do you mean!?" Naruto asked.

"Calm down and listen, it's just like Sakura said: You have to draw on spiritual and physical energies, and combine them within yourself. But, how do you do that?" Kakashi asked. "Each Jutsu requires different amounts of the two chakras in different proportions. You have to combine them in exactly the right way, which up to now you haven't done. You've only guessed at the proportions, and hoped it worked out. And it doesn't matter how much chakra you put out, if you don't balance the proportions, it's all a waste! The Jutsu won't work at all, or it will just be a joke. You waste your chakra, and you waste your energy, then you're vulnerable to attack!"

The four collectively realize they are all doing it wrong. 'Aura was so much easier… then again… I had to control my Aura a completely different way than normal, by controlling that Energy, which I still haven't figured out what it really is…'

"So, how do we fix that?" Naruto asked.

"Train so hard that controlling your chakra balance is second nature to you. To achieve this goal, you must be ready to put your life on the line." Kakashi answered.

"What do we have to do?" Sakura asked.

Kakashi chuckled before answering. "Climb a tree." This got AJ to completely look up at him now from his position.

"""Climb a tree!?""" The three Genin collectively asked.

"That's right." Kakashi answered.

"Alright, now I'm curious." AJ said as he stood up and stretched briefly before walking over to them.

"Glad you could join us, Shin. Oh, there's just one rule: No hands." Kakashi said.

"What? You're kidding…" Sakura complained.

"How… exactly?..." AJ asked, confused and curious.

"Am I kidding? Let's see." Kakashi said before gripping his crutches and slowly hobbling over to a nearby tree, and casually walking up it…

"He's climbing straight up…" Naruto said in awe.

"And he's only using his feet!?" Sakura noted.

'Aaaaaaannnnd now he's upside down on a branch…'

"Well you get the idea." Upside Down Kakashi said casually.

"Hey! Why didn't you ever teach _me_ this!?" AJ shouted up to him.

"You may progress rapidly, but this skill simply isn't something you learn right off the bat. Even with your skill you weren't ready for it! And… I figured I would just teach you and them at the same time." Kakashi said.

"I'm guessing that last reason was the real reason." Neko commented. AJ nodded in agreement.

"Anyway, focus chakra towards the soles of your feet, and use it to connect to the tree. This is one way to apply the power of chakra." Kakashi explained.

AJ facepalmed in realization and looked back up at Kakashi. "And if we can learn to control our charka like this, it will help us control our chakra when we use it in Jutsu!"

"Exactly. You caught on quick, Shin." Kakashi complemented.

"So…" AJ started and focused Chakra to the bottom of his feet, which is the hardest place to focus chakra. He then walked up towards the tree and put his right foot on it. "Alright… and…" He tried to put his left foot up but his right foot quickly slid down. "Nope… that won't work." He tried again and failed before deciding to get a running start.

"Whoa!" Naruto commented as AJ made it thirteen steps up before slipping and quickly pulling out a kunai and stabbing it into the tree so he wouldn't fall. He looked back down at the Genin before looking up to the other tree where Kakashi still stood upside down.

'Lots of chakra, not as much control as I would like… Though I suppose for someone who has only had chakra for three months, I'm better than Naruto or Sasuke are with it, which is phenomenal… not sure how well Sakura does yet though…'

"I didn't say start yet." Kakashi commented.

"Yeah yeah…" AJ waved him off before pulling his kunai out and landing next to the Genin.

"Excellent work, Shin. Now, do what he did. Focus your chakra, get a running start, and," He threw three kunai at the kids' feet. "Use these to mark your progress on the tree." He said.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Sakura realized something. "That's a nice trick, but how does it help us help you fight Zabuza!?" She asked.

"It's the only way, Sakura." Kakashi answered. "That's the entire goal of this training. You learn to put a precise amount of chakra at a precise point on your body. This is difficult even for advanced ninja, and it's the hardest part of the body to focus chakra. Like Shin said earlier: This will teach you how to better control your chakra. If you master this, your chakra control would allow you to master any Jutsu! Well… theoretically." Kakashi explained.

"And another point, this will teach you to maintain your chakra levels. You have to manage your chakra in a long fight, it must become second nature to do this, if you want to survive that is." Kakashi added. "Well I can talk about this all day, but the three of you won't get anywhere with that. Now, I'll say it again: Do what Shin did, climb the tree, without using your hands. Remember, mark the highest point you reach before you fall back down, and try to beat that point the next time. And also, you should have noticed Shin needed a running start to get up the tree. You will have to do the same, until you get used to it. Now, you ready?"

"I'm ready! No sweat! Remember what you said Sensei!? I'm the one who's grown the most!" Naruto reminded.

"You are certainly the one who talks the most, now get focused and do it!" Kakashi ordered.

The three Genin focused their chakra like Kakashi and AJ had done earlier.

"Charge!" Naruto shouted as the four of them all ran at separate trees.

AJ made it up an extra step before he slashed the tree with the kunai because he felt his foot slip off the tree. When he landed he saw that Sasuke had made it up about ten steps before leaving a dent in the tree from his Chakra being too strong, and falling, and Naruto made it up like two before falling on his head. While Naruto was holding his head in pain and rolling around on the floor, AJ felt that there were two emotions above him now. So, he looked up and saw Sakura was sitting on a branch high up her tree.

"Hey! This is fun!" Sakura giggled in accomplishment and was sticking her tongue out at them, a smile on her face.

"Weeell! Looks like the female of this squad has the most chakra control!" Kakashi pointed out. "Well done Sakura."

"Yeah, it's pretty easy to control your chakra when you have so little of it!" AJ teased Sakura.

"You're just jealous that a kid made it higher than you!" Sakura teased back. She freaked out internally when she remembered his usual attitude but was pleasantly surprised when he simply chuckled at their banter and didn't get angry at her.

"Yeah! Way to go Sakura! I always knew you could do it!" Naruto complimented.

"Whatever…" Sasuke commented.

"Well, not only does she understand chakra, but she can control and maintain it better than any of you can." Kakashi pointed out, trying to rile them up and motivate them. "We talked about _someone_ becoming Hokage someday, didn't we? Well I think Sakura has a better chance at that, wouldn't you say?"

'That will certainly get Naruto motivated.'

"And as for the great Uchiha clan, maybe they aren't so great after all?"

'A _little_ bit harsh with that one.'

"Shut up Sensei! You talk too much!" Sakura said.

Naruto and Sasuke glanced at each other.

"Alright! First I'll match Sasuke! Then I'm going all the way to the top! Believe it! Hey, where did Shin go?"

"It's not nice to spy on people, you know." AJ said to the boy that spun around in fright.

"What!? How did you know I was here?" The boy asked.

"What was your name again?" AJ asked.

"I-Inari." The boy answered.

"Alright Inari, let me tell you now, you won't believe me, but I'm telling you anyway. Whatever you went through, I'm sorry it happened to you." AJ said softly to the boy. "But know this, we will protect your Grandfather, and we will not be stopped by Gato." Rather than seeing an inspired sparkle in the kid's eyes, he simply glared at AJ.

"You don't understand what he's capable of…" Inari said angrily.

"You don't know what we're capable of either." AJ said, before crouching before the boy. "I haven't told anyone yet, but I'll tell you. I have abilities that can wipe out entire armies, that's what some ninja are good at." He said with a confident smile. "So don't worry, we won't lose to Gato, I promise. Rather you believe me or not… I promise." He said before disappearing again, going back to his training.

Naruto fell and hit his head again.

"Maybe work on your landing strategy." AJ suggested with a chuckle, and remembering how a certain other blond boy was pretty bad at landing as well.

"Oww… Ah…" Naruto nursed his bump which had another bump on top of it. He looked up at the little progress he had made and growled in frustration. Then he turned and snuck over to Sakura. "Hey, uh, you and Shin are good at this, but I don't think he'll help me so… can you give me some advice? Please!? But don't tell Sasuke!" He whispered to her.

'Hmph. He's finally figuring it out.' AJ and Kakashi shared a glance, thinking the same thing.

Training continued, the boys never seeming to run out of Charka and energy. Meanwhile Sakura had run out long ago and was amazed how they just kept going. Naruto and Sasuke kept training all throughout the night and Shin needed something to keep his mind from wandering. Sakura and Kakashi decided to head back to Tazuna's house while the three boys kept training. At this point AJ could pretty much make it to the top while Sasuke and Naruto were still struggling.

Naruto and Sasuke were gasping for breath, but one look at each other would have them forget their low energy and charge right back up the tree. AJ was also breathing heavily but not as bad as them. He simply watched the rivalry unfold, wishing he had popcorn.

* * *

Next day. Progress made. By nightfall of that day AJ was able to climb the tree completely, so now he was just starting to work on climbing without gaining momentum first.

"Shit! AH!"

Not much success at the moment… But he did _just_ start.

"Hey, Shin." Sasuke called out as he approached the taller, older boy.

"Hmm? What?" AJ asked the normally quiet boy.

"How…" He seemed hesitant to speak. "How, do you do so well?" He asked hesitantly. "Do you… have any advice?"

AJ chuckled. "Sasuke, forget your stupid pride. It shouldn't be that hard to ask." Sasuke gave him an annoyed look. "You know I'm right." Sasuke looked away from him. "Anyway, if you really need help, try focusing. Focus on the tree or whatever, just focus."

"Just focus?" Sasuke didn't get how it was that simple. Meanwhile Naruto was muffling his laughter as he heard Sasuke ask for help.

"Yeah. Spiritual energy requires concentration and focus. I actually have only recently started doing that, but I'm not very good with focusing on things. You'll probably do better than me with concentration." AJ explained.

Sasuke thanked him before walking back to his own tree. AJ thought about how focus might help him, but wasn't sure how to focus. He never was able to focus unless he was in a battle. He tried picturing the tree, and felt a bit clear for a moment but lost his focus again. He tried to find something else to picture and focus on.

" _What's that symbol on your back mean?"_

AJ pictured his symbol and suddenly felt really… calm… like wtf calm…

His breathing was very calm and slow, his mind felt clear, he felt… powerful, for some reason.

"Um… Shin?" Naruto asked. "Why are you glowing?"

AJ opened his eyes and there was a faint glow coming from his iris'. He put one foot forward, then the next, then the next, and now he was slowly walking up the tree. 'Calm, slow steps, remain focused…' He felt a power surge, his Aura forced its way to the surface, powered by his calm mind. His Aura mixed with his Chakra, and he suddenly felt the courage to start running up, so he did. He sprinted all the way to the top, Aura flowing off of his feet, rather than his whole body as it normally would. He reached the top and looked down, way down, to the forest floor where the two boys stood in awe.

"Why didn't I try mixing Chakra with Aura before!?" AJ asked himself. 'Wait a minute… I did! They wouldn't mix back then! Why now!? Just because I focused!?... well… I guess so!' With that mystery not really solved he leapt all the way back down, cracking the floor when he landed.

"Seriously! How were you glowing!? Is that some kind of Jutsu!?" Naruto asked.

"I just… focused…" AJ said with a bit of a confused tone.

* * *

"I can't get over it! It really is great to have so many guests at our table!" Tazuna said happily when everyone started eating.

"Yes, but SOME PEOPLE NEED TO SLOW DOWN ON THEIR EATING!" AJ yelled at Naruto and Sasuke.

""I want some more!"" They both said suddenly, holding up their empty bowls before glaring at each other, and then throwing up…

"You idiots…" AJ facepalmed.

"Don't eat so much if you're gonna puke it up!" Sakura yelled.

"You guys are embarrassing…" AJ said to his palm, which was still in his face.

"I have to eat." Sasuke said weakly.

'Yes, we all do…'

"And I have to eat more than him." Naruto said. "It's the only possible way I'll get strong enough to beat him."

"That's true. But puking won't help you." Kakashi reminded.

"Seriously, slow down." AJ demanded.

Eventually the food was cleared and all that was left was the water and tea to drink while Tsunami was cleaning the dishes nearby.

"Hey, this picture is torn, is there some reason for that?" Sakura asked and the ninja in the room all looked at said picture. "Inari, you kept glancing at it all through dinner. It looks like-"

"Sakura, be quiet." AJ quietly ordered.

"What?" Sakura asked, confused on what she had done wrong.

"You're the smart one of the three and you can't figure it out?" AJ asked with an annoyed tone.

"It's my husband that's torn out of that picture." Tsunami answered without emotion.

"They used to call him a hero in this land…" Tazuna said slowly, and with that Inari calmly walked out.

"Inari, where are you going!?" Tsunami asked her son as he walked out the door, she followed him. "Father, you can't talk about him like that around Inari! You know that!" Tsunami said angrily before leaving.

"Would you like to explain what happened to Inari, and that man? Or is that too hard for you?" AJ asked politely.

"No, it's ok. I can talk about it, and you should know anyway. He wasn't his real father, he came into our family later, and he brought so much happiness. He and Inari were inseparable, they were very close." At this point his voice became shaky. "In those days, Inari used to laugh all the time… but then…" A few tears began falling off the old man's face. "All that ended… he never laughs or smiles anymore… ever since the day everything changed…The word courage was stolen from this island! We were left feeling powerless, hopeless, and Inari suffered the most! Ever since that day, ever since _it_ happened!"

"Tell us, please. What happened to Inari?" Kakashi requested.

"First you need to know about the man, his father. The man who taught us the word 'courage'. Who was a hero in this land." Tazuna said, taking off his glasses to wipe away his tears.

"A hero? Really?" Naruto asked curiously.

"You can decide that for yourself. He came here about three years ago…" Tazuna started.

 _Backstory Flashback time! I'm gonna have to do this a lot in this series!_

A younger Inari, which isn't wearing a fisherman's hat, is being held back by two boys not much older than him while the leader of the group stood in front of him. The boy had a bandage across his nose and a hardhat on. They stood on a wooden walkway over the water.

"Poochy! Poochy, no!" Inari cried out to his dog, which the leader boy held.

The small white dog with black ears and tail barked to him.

"That's not his name!" The leader said. "Starting now, his name is Shooting-Star! And he's my dog now!"

"That's not his name!" Inari cried out again. "He's my dog! And his name's not Shooting-Star!" Inari corrected. "I've had him since he was a puppy! He my friend and he doesn't belong to you!" Inari tried to struggle out of the two other boys' grips but failed.

"Just shut up!" The leader yelled angrily. He looked at the whimpering dog and threw it in the water.

"Poochy!" Inari cried out to the dog which apparently couldn't swim.

"See what happens when you don't listen to me?" The leader said. "Now I'm not gonna lift a finger to help him. Ok, you can let him go!" He said to the two boys, who released Inari.

"Why did you do that!? My dog is gonna drown!" Inari said angrily.

"Hah! If he's your dog, jump in and get him!" The leader suggested. "Be a big hero and save your friend!" Inari hesitated. "After all that talk!? You're not gonna let him go under, are you?"

Inari slowly stepped towards the edge, looking down at the dog which was still struggling.

"HAHAH! He won't even help his precious little Poochy!" The leader boy laughed. "Hey! You made such a big deal about him? Go get him!" He said as he kicked Inari into the water, and Inari can't swim either…

"I think you went too far Akane…" One of the two lackeys said. "I mean he could really drown or something…"

"Help! Please!"

"Forget about it." The leader, Akane said.

"I don't know…" The one said hesitantly.

Akane grabbed him by his shirt. "You say one more word and you're going in next, got it!?" He threatened.

"I don't wanna die! Pooch!"

" _It was in that moment," Tazuna said. "that Pooch figured out how to dog paddle."_

"Pooch!" Inari cried out again to the dog which made it onto the shore.

"Hey! Shooting-Star's running away! Get him!" Akane ordered and the trio left Inari to drown.

Inari sank down into the depths of the water, but woke up on land.

"You're waking up huh? Finally!" A voice said and Inari sat up to see a man cooking fish over a campfire. "I had a little talk with those kids, they won't bother you again. Here, eat!" The man offered a fish.

"Did you pull me out of the water, Mister?" Inari asked the man.

"Have a bite to eat first, then we can talk all you want!" The man said with a laugh and a friendly smile.

"Hmm. I see, you dog abandoned you too, huh?" The man asked. "Where I'm from, dogs are very loyal, they stand by their masters. Then again… you abandoned the dog first, so, what can you expect?" The man pointed out and Inari looked down sadly.

"I wanted to help, but I just froze. I was just so scared… I guess that I don't have any courage…" Inari started to tear up.

"Heeeeyyy! Come on! Don't be so hard on yourself, you're a kid!" The man said, putting his hand on Inari's head. "When I was your age, I was scared too. It's no big deal, but always remember this: Live your life so you have nothing to regret. If you care about something, protect it, no matter how tough, no matter how sad, you've got to keep trying! Even if you have to put your life on the line! Protect it, with both arms! Never give in!"

" _His name was Kaiza. He was a common fisherman who had come here from another land to follow his dreams." Tazuna said. "After that, Inari and Kaiza were inseparable. The boy had never known his real father, so you can imagine what that meant to him to have Kaiza in his life. He looked up to him, and followed in his footsteps, like a real father and son. Kaiza spent more and more time with us until he just naturally became part of the family. And then when this town needed him, he became something more…"_

"We've got trouble, Kaiza!" A man said as the door flung open. There was a massive storm outside with lighting and pouring rain. "The floodgates are open and the water is rising! If we don't stop it the water district will be flooded!"

"What!?" Kaiza exclaimed.

"Father!?" Inari shouted.

"Inari! Get me some rope, hurry!" Kaiza ordered and Inari gladly followed the order.

"We need to get a line out there quick!"

"A line!? You would have to swim out there! It's impossible, no one can make it through that current!"

"If we don't do it the whole district will be wiped out! It's the only way!"

"I'll do it!"

"Kaiza!?"

"Don't be foolish!"

"You'll never make it!"

"Father…" Inari said sadly.

"Don't worry. Nothing can stop your dad. This is our village so we've got to do everything we can to help." Kaiza said confidently.

With the rope tied around him, Kaiza jumped into the rapid current and began swimming towards the other side where the floodgate was located.

"FATHER! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!" Inari cheered.

"He made it! He tied the rope!"

"Alright! Let's pull it closed!"

" _From that time on, Kaiza was considered a hero in this land. He taught us all the meaning of courage and Inari was so proud to be his son." Tazuna said. "But it wasn't long after, Gato showed up, and took over. He terrorized the whole village, only Kaiza stood up to him. Gato couldn't have a local hero getting in his way. It took his whole gang to stop one man._

Everyone stood behind a fence, watching as Kaiza was put on a wood cross and tied to it. The man looked beaten in every way.

"Listen up!" Gato said to the crowd. "This man defied the Gato Corporation! He has disturbed the order of this land! His punishment, is execution!" Whispers broke out in the crowd. "Let this be an example, so no one will dare stand in our way again!"

"FATHER!" Inari cried out, tears flowing freely.

"Inari, don't." A man tried to pull Inari away so he didn't have to see this.

"Do it." Gato ordered.

"Father no…" Inari cried weakly, before Kaiza was executed in from of him and everyone else in the village.

 _Ok, flashback over._

"Since then, Inari has changed." Tazuna said. "So did Tsunami and all our people. We lost our will."

"That is such a sad story…" AJ said solemnly.

Naruto stood up to leave and fell after the first step.

"What are you doing down there Naruto?" Sakura asked, no concern evident in her voice.

"You better take the day off Naruto, no more training. You've used too much chakra. If you push any harder it could kill you." Kakashi suggested while Naruto struggled to stand.

"I'm gonna prove it!" Naruto said.

""Prove what?"" AJ and Sakura asked as Naruto weakly stood up.

"I'll prove… that it's true! That in this world… there are real heroes!"

"Let me help you with that, Naruto!" AJ said and stood up to follow him. "I have a promise to keep." He said with a determined look.

* * *

Two shadows stood in a dark room, a few candles gave the smallest amount of light but neither shadows' faces were visible. One shadow stood before the other who was sitting in a chair.

"This… angel boy you mentioned sounds… interesting…" The sitting one said.

"He's dangerous." The standing one replied simply.

"And this… Remnant of yours… sounds like a wonderful place. And this Aura that they have… I want that power."

"I can try to help you with that, but I make no promises."

"I wouldn't believe any promise you made to me anyway. You are pure evil after all."

"Hmph! That sounded like a compliment."

"Hmph. It was."

"Well, you seem like pure evil yourself… Orochimaru."

"I'll take that as a compliment." Orochimaru said with his usual evil chuckle. "Anyway, this angel boy would be no match for me."

"No, I will be the one to fight him!" The standing shadow said adamantly.

"If you insist, but why do you need me then?"

"I want your help, so I can win the next fight. This time I will kill him, if you help me." The standing shadow bowed down on one knee before the seated one, Orochimaru.

"It would be so much easier for me to do it, but alright. I'll let you have your fun."

"It's not fun… It's revenge!" The bowing shadow said angrily as it stood up and the candle light revealed the evil AJ double's red eyes and the scars he had covering his face and going in all directions.

* * *

 **Aww shit son, the evil double is here too!?**

 **Well, from now on, I will post on this story weekly or biweekly at most, hopefully. Seriously though, if you haven't read the previous two books of Fate, now you have the time to do it.**

 **Hope you are enjoying, follow, fav, review as long as you don't flame.**

 **Have a great week!**

 **(It's been a long time since I've said that…)**


	4. House of Mirrors

**I'm finally back with another chapter! I did not get nearly as much work on this as I could have, like, I just didn't work on it most days. So yeah, that's why this took so long. Honestly biweekly might become the usual update schedule because I don't know how I will be able to get a whole chapter done in just a week. Still, I'll try.**

 **Alright, two people (you know who you are) have been bringing up Blake coming to the Naruto world. Look, just because Blake's name is in the preview thing, doesn't** **necessarily** **mean that Blake will just** **happen** **to come in at a crucial point and** **save a certain someone.** **I would never do that! I've never written a happy ending in my life! *Cough* Angels *Cough***

 **I am inferring nothing.**

 **On with the story!**

* * *

Tortured Soul Ch.4

* * *

 _As my fingers trace the scar of this frozen bond_

AJ is shown walking along the edge of a forest at night, he doesn't have his cloak and touches two scars running down the left side of his face. He looks distant and lonely as he slowly walks along the path and stares at the ground in thought.

 _Deep within the crevice tearing my broken heart_

He shuts his eyes tight as tears fall out of them and he sobs quietly.

 _My body is wondering on…_

 _All my thoughts evaporate into shapeless dark_

He opens his eyes and a few tears continue to fall but now he looks very angry as he grits his teeth and glares up at the camera.

 _Faded like the past decays in a memory_

His eyes turn red and his teeth grow sharp. He turns back to normal as he suddenly snaps his head in the direction of the forest and catches a glimpse of someone that looked like Blake.

 _Now I search for an illusion_

He runs frantically through the forest looking in every direction for her and eventually comes to a small clearing and falls to his knees and cries again. He keeps his mouth shut tight gritting his teeth together, he also keeps his eyes shut tight but once again tears get through.

 _I will try to wield power over destiny…_

 _In the world that shined for me_

White Aura blasted out of him and he stood up and rushed further into the forest still frantically searching.

 _My memories live on_

He thought about teams RWBY and JNPR and the things they had done together.

 _Forgotten dreams call out_

He stopped for a moment and looked around.

 _To stars that I once wished upon_

He smiled as he looked up at the stars through a hole in the canopy of trees, before rushing out again.

 _Now I see the scenery_

He continued to run but now tears ran down his face as he ran.

 _Distilled inside my mind_

 _That never ending night_

Scene of him crying in his sleep.

 _And days stretch forever_

Scene of him walking around the village looking distant.

 _Though we're far apart, you are still in my heart_

He thought about Blake again and ran faster.

 _And no mere separation_

He let out another burst of Aura and went into his second stage where his Aura took the form of see though wings behind him.

 _Will stop this light from reaching you_

Blake was visited by a white light in her dream back on Remnant.

 _A miracle_

AJ jumped out into another clearing and looked at the camera. He started building up Aura into his right hand, so much it was a light show of bright white mist so bright it actually is blinding.

 _Will finally come true_

He charged at the viewer with his lightshow of a punch.

Change scene and camera looks at a Naruto in nine tails mode covered in red chakra.

Camera turns to the Sasuke in his second stage curse mark.

Camera turns again to see AJ glaring at the two before charging at them as we hit the static part of the song they charge at each other and the screen goes black.

Tortured Soul, A multiverse Fanfiction

* * *

 _Flashback_

"I could have sworn that if I lost her I would kill myself, but maybe because I didn't see her die, and have no confirmation that she's dead, I haven't killed myself yet… I really don't know."

"Just keep going with the hope that we'll get to go back someday." Neko suggested.

"I have no hope of going back. I'm not going to give myself false hope. I'm just going to keep going like I used to back on Earth… with no purpose." AJ said emotionlessly.

He was sitting near the edge of a cliff, but not just any cliff. This was the one that had the four Hokage's faces carved into it. He looked out at the village far below him, it was a pretty village.

"Ah! There you are!" Speaking of Hokage, there's the third.

The old man stood to AJ's right, and looked out over the village with him. Neko jumped up into his arms and he pet the cat for a minute while he spoke.

"How have you been settling in?" He asked.

"About as well as you would expect." AJ answered, but sensed that The Third wanted him to elaborate. "Kakashi and Iruka have been nice and helpful. Besides the fact that Iruka hates that I don't call him Sensei and Kakashi's training is difficult, as I expected. I absolutely hate this, but the village is generally nice, I suppose."

"If you would be willing, we could delve into your memories and learn more about what you've been through." The Third suggested. "It would help us, help me, understand your situation better, understand you better."

"You know I'm not going to allow that…" AJ deadpanned without turning to the old man.

"I wouldn't expect you to, but I had to ask."

"Sure you did…"

"Is there anything of your world, or the last world you were in, what was it called again?" The Third asked.

"The last world I was in is called Remnant, and I was born on a world called Earth, though it is nothing like this earth." AJ answered.

"Is there anything of either world that you want to talk about?" The Hokage asked.

"No." AJ answered simply.

The Hokage paused for a moment. "If you ever want to talk to me about either world, I am always willing to set aside time for you."

"I don't want to talk about any of it." AJ said.

"You will have to talk about it at some point." The Hokage said, making AJ frown in annoyance. "You must, because otherwise you would forget about the ones you love. You must never forget about them, even if remembering them causes you pain." He said before walking away.

 _End Flashback_

* * *

The forest was peaceful and all, but AJ preferred somewhere with noise to occupy his mind. At Tazuna's house, there were seagulls and the sound of the waves. In the forest, the wildlife was scared away by Naruto being a loud and obnoxious brat. At least in the forest he was training, and that tended to occupy his mind, somewhat.

Though, now that AJ thought about it…

"Aaaaaah! *Thud* "Ow!"

Watching Naruto run up the tree has its moments. Sometimes he falls on his head, and that always gets a chuckle out of him.

"I keep telling you, work on your landing strate-"

"I know! I know!" Naruto interrupted in a whining tone before getting up and nursing the bump on the bump on the bump his head. The kid took a few moments to catch his breath before running up the tree again.

"Aaaaah!" *Thud*

AJ chuckled. "Landing strategyyy."

"Shiiiin! I'm gonna hurt you as soon as I get up!" Naruto threatened. He didn't seem very threatening as he clutched his head and writhed on the ground.

"Go ahead, try. I've just been sitting here and watching you this whole time instead of getting actual training done myself, so I could use a workout. You falling on your head is too distracting!" AJ said with a laugh.

"You're a sadist." Neko commented.

"I got it from Ozpin." AJ answered, before looking up in thought. "And Kakashi, now that I think about it."

Naruto stood up and got ready to try and punch AJ.

"How about this? If you can get higher than your highest point on the tree right now, I'll let you hit me once." AJ asked.

Naruto grinned confidently. "Get ready then, cause I'm going to blow my record away!" He then got ready, trying to hide the fact that he had virtually no energy left, and began running up the tree. He made great progress, to AJ's surprise, and just barely made it past his previous record before backflipping back down. "Ha! I did it! I did it!" He turned around and grinned at AJ, before suddenly falling and passing out from exhaustion.

"I knew you would pass out after another run." AJ said to himself before sitting down next to Naruto.

He sat there and stared at the blonde for a bit. The boy was getting some well-earned rest if he was being honest. As much as he hated the boy, he's got a good soul, which is a big plus in AJ's book.

He couldn't help but compare him a bit to Jaune, though Jaune is older and semi-competent. Admittedly, Naruto, in all his stupidity, would certainly have beaten the old Jaune. AJ had helped Pyrrha train Jaune when he could though, so if the two blondes were to fight now… well… it would probably be an even fight…

…probably…

'They both suck at landing though, that is something they definitely have in common. Actually… they both have good souls, so they both have that going for them as well.'

He just sat there for awhile, and with Naruto asleep, the wildlife came back, and soon birds flew near and a few even landed on them. One landed on Neko, who was napping on Naruto's chest, but was scared away when the cat moved. A few deer even got close, but they kept their distance. Even so, AJ couldn't help but smile as he looked at the bird on his hand, on his shoulder, on Naruto's head, the deer. He loved the nature here, and the sounds of it all. That wasn't as much of an option on Remnant, where you had to be in the cities to be safe.

AJ couldn't smile anymore though as he sensed someone come near. He didn't look at them though, he just kept staring at the birds until the person's emotion became curiosity and they started to walk over. Neko's ears perked up and he opened his eyes, AJ slowly turned his head towards the person. It was some woman in a kimono, carrying a basket. 'No, wait, that isn't a woman… looks like one though.'

"Hello there." The 'woman' said.

"Hi." AJ said. 'Sounds kind of like one too.'

Naruto stirred, noticed the "girl", and quickly sat up. "Huh!? Who are you!? I mean… Hi there, where did you come from?" He corrected, blushing.

'Idiot!'

"I'm gathering herbs." The 'woman' answered. "Though I noticed you two here and I just felt that you should know that you'll catch a cold if you just sleep here. I'm sure you were just keeping an eye on him, but still, you need to move him." He said, turning towards AJ who kept frowning at her. "I… don't suppose you would be willing to help me gather herbs? It would help me get done much quicker."

AJ thought about it for a second. "I suppose we have nothing else-"

"Sure!" Naruto cut him off enthusiastically, making AJ glare at him.

And so they found a small clearing filled with small herbal plants on the ground and the three began picking the plants.

"You sure start work early, huh sis?" Naruto asked not long after they began.

"I like it early, its calm." The stranger answered. "But I didn't think I'd find anyone out here, let alone someone sleeping in the woods."

Naruto grinned proudly. "We're training! Well… I'm training." He glared at AJ. "Shin just stood there and watched me fall from the tree."

"I actually did train at first." AJ pointed out smartassly. He sniffed the plant he picked and recoiled. Not a pleasant smell.

The stranger looked surprised, though AJ could sense otherwise. "Training? So are you ninjas? Because I saw the headbands you both are wearing… or are you both just making a fashion statement?"

Naruto blushed at the attention. "You noticed that huh? Alright! Only super cool ninja get to wear these!" He said, pointing at his headband. He then leaned towards the stranger. "I don't really know how Shin got his though."

"I don't even need cat ears to hear you, you idiot!" AJ said angrily, making Naruto recoil away in fear.

The stranger chuckled at their antics. "Super cool ninja? I see. That's very impressive." Naruto chuckled happily. "But… does that mean you're preparing for something dangerous?"

"I'm just developing my skills so I can get stronger." Naruto answered.

"Someday, he might even be one percent of my strength." AJ commented.

"Shut up, Shin!" Naruto yelled.

"You both seem strong already, isn't that enough?" The stranger asked curiously.

"No! I have to get stronger and stronger! I have to keep practicing!" Naruto answered.

AJ was about to comment but he was surprised to feel actual curiosity from the stranger.

"Why is it so important?" He asked.

"So I can become the best ninja in my village!" Naruto answered.

"In your dreams." AJ mumbled.

"And everyone will know who I am and they'll all respect me!" Naruto continued.

"Well you got the first one down. We all know you're an idiot." AJ mumbled.

"There's also a certain someone, a kid, that I have to prove something to!" Naruto finished.

"So are you doing this for that certain person? Or are you doing this for yourself?" The stranger asked, causing both Naruto and AJ to look at 'her' in surprise.

"Huh?" Naruto so eloquently asked, causing the person to chuckle. "Hey! What's so funny!?"

The stranger took a moment to stop chuckling. "Is there… someone precious to you?"

"What are you saying, sis? What do you mean 'precious'?" Naruto asked, not getting it.

Meanwhile AJ had gone silent.

"You see… when someone has something precious that they want to protect… that is when they become genuinely strong."

Naruto hummed in thought.

"I think you know what I'm talking about… don't you, Shin?" The stranger asked.

"…Y-Yes…" AJ said hesitantly, trying not to sound like he was crying, and failing. "I know what you mean, _exactly_ what you mean."

"Yeah, I know what you mean too!" Naruto said.

AJ took a moment to breathe and soon calmed down.

The stranger grabbed his basket and stood up. "I can feel it, you both will get stronger, much stronger. Goodbye. We'll meet again sometime." He said before starting to walk away. "Oh, and by the way…"

AJ couldn't help but grin in anticipation. 'Do it. Please do it.'

"…I'm a boy."

"WHAAAAAAAAT!?"

*Gasping laugh* 'YEEEEEEES! Thank you kind stranger!'

Sasuke walked up to an odd scene. Normally calm or angry Shin rolling on the floor and gasping for air, laughing, and Naruto sitting next to him, looking incredibly shocked and confused.

"Boy, I've seen a lot of weird things in my life, but this one takes the cake!" Naruto exclaimed.

"No, _I've_ seen a lot of weird things in my life!" AJ corrected, sitting up. "You have no idea!"

"Well maybe I would if you would tell me!" Naruto complained. "Oh! Hi Sasu-"*Bang* "Ow! Hey! Why did you hit me!?"

"Hey twerp." Sasuke said, ignoring the question. "Did you both forget about breakfast or something?"

Naruto simply smirked and laughed, creeping out and annoying Sasuke.

"I didn't forget." AJ answered simply.

"Why didn't you tell this loser to come back for breakfast then?" Sasuke asked.

"Because I decided to watch over him while he slept on the floor. Why was he sleeping on the floor? Because he's an idiot and he passed out from exhaustion." AJ said.

"You could have just dragged him back." Sasuke argued before starting to walk away.

AJ stood up and began following him. "Yeah, I could have. Kind of wish I did now."

"Hey! Shin! Wait!" Naruto yelled as he stood up.

"What?" AJ asked, annoyed, as he looked over his shoulder.

"I have a cool idea! Can you help me with it?" Naruto asked.

"Depends. What is it?"

…

"No! I'm not helping you show off!" AJ yelled.

"Come ooooon! Pleeeeease?" Naruto begged.

"No. And if you keep begging I will knock you out." AJ said before walking away.

Apparently Sakura and Kakashi had gone out looking for them as well, so when all of them finally caught up with AJ, who was already back at the house, Kakashi explained that Naruto fell from a tree trying to show off and Sasuke had to save him.

* * *

Sasuke and Naruto went out to continue training later at night, while AJ decided to stay at the house and enjoy some food along with the others. Neko liked getting to eat fish while he was here.

"Now they're both late." Sakura noted as Tsunami was passing food around the table. "I wouldn't have expected that from Sasuke."

"They'll be here in a few seconds." AJ commented.

"Wait, you can sense them nearby!?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah. Look at the door." AJ pointed to the door, and Naruto and Sasuke walked in, leaning on each other for support.

"What have you been up to?" Tazuna asked. "You look like something the cat dragged in."

"I take offense to that, I would never drag them in here." Neko said, though only AJ actually heard words, the rest just heard him meow, as usual. That made it odd to everyone else when AJ let out a humored snort.

Naruto looked up at them and smirked proudly. "We did it… we made it all the way to the top."

"Good." Kakashi said with a nod. "Now we move on. Starting tomorrow, you're both body guards for Tazuna."

Naruto smiled. "Alright!" He yelled happily and jumped up, causing both him and Sasuke to fall on their asses.

"Agh! You are such a loser!" Sasuke said angrily, causing everyone else to laugh.

"Should I go with them to make sure they don't mess up?" AJ asked Kakashi.

"Hey!" Naruto whined.

"I think they can handle things by themselves. You could stay here and hold down the fort." Kakashi answered.

"If you say so." AJ said reluctantly. He didn't think Sasuke and Naruto could handle it, but didn't feel it was worth arguing about.

Eventually they all ate their fill and had started stacking the plates together.

"In a few more days, the bridge will be finished." Tazuna stated. "I have you to thank for that." He said, looking at the Leaf Ninja.

"You've all done great, but you've still got to be careful." Tsunami stated worryingly to her father.

Tazuna looked at Kakashi. "I've been meaning to ask you this but I haven't had the chance till now. Why did you stay and protect me even after I lied to bring you here?"

"Those who stray from the path of justice, have no courage. But under the wing of a strong leader, cowardice cannot survive." Kakashi stated.

"Huh?" Tsunami asked.

"That was a quote, from the First Hokage." Kakashi answered.

"The one who created the Hidden Leaf Village?" AJ asked rhetorically. "Well, he's not wrong."

AJ's emotion sense had been turned off at the moment, but since Neko had decided to fuse with him earlier, he caught the scent of tears and heard one land on the table.

"But why?" Inari asked. You could tell by his voice that he was crying.

"What'd you say?" Naruto asked, raising his head from the table.

Inari slammed his hands on the table. "All this stupid training is just a waste of time! Gato's got a whole army and he'll destroy you! These cool things you all say, the promise you made, they don't mean anything! No matter what you do, the strong always win and the weak always lose!"

AJ sighed. 'I guess he doesn't believe me. I'll show him I wasn't lying though. Someday.'

"Just speak for yourself!" Naruto said, unamused, before setting his head back down on the table. "It won't be like that for me, you got that!?"

"Why don't you be quiet!?" Inari yelled. "Just looking at you makes me sick! You don't know anything about this country, you're just butting in! Always laughing and playing around! _You don't know what it's like to suffer and be treated like dirt!_ "

AJ and Naruto's expressions darkened.

"Listen to yourself whining and complaining, like some sorry little victim." Naruto said. "You can whimper all day for all I care! _You're nothing but a coward!"_ He yelled before getting up and angrily walking away.

"Naruto! You went too far!" Sakura yelled.

"No, Sakura." AJ said, suddenly standing up and glaring at Inari. "He's the one that went too far." He said before walking away as well, heading outside.

He tried his best to limit the amount of trees that he took out his anger on, but quite a few still were felled by his sword or his claws. It was bad enough feeling worthless on Earth, but before he met Yang and Ruby, his time on Remnant was hell. He was treated like dirt and constantly suffered, he was constantly yelled at and even beaten once. Hearing Inari acting like he had it worse was… infuriating. It felt like Naruto had felt the exact same way before he got out of sensing range.

* * *

The next morning they found that Naruto had pushed himself too far that night and was likely going to be asleep for quite awhile. With Naruto out, Kakashi decided it was necessary to bring AJ along to the bridge. They all got packed up and were ready to head out.

"Okay, I leave Naruto in your hands." Kakashi said to Tsunami as they all stood outside Tazuna's house. "He's pushed his body to the limit, overdoing it as usual, so he may not be able to move today at all."

"What about you though?" Tsunami asked. "You're still recovering yourself."

"What, do I look wobbly?" Kakashi asked with a chuckle. "I'll be okay."

"Come on, let's go." Tazuna requested and he and the Leaf Ninja set out for the bridge-in-progress.

AJ had been to the bridge once before, but it had made far more progress since then. By now it felt like land was just a stone's throw away. They had made it about half way across when AJ felt unusual emotions at the end of the bridge.

"Oh shit!" AJ exclaimed in distress as he suddenly willed a bow into existence before disappearing.

This caused Kakashi to grow serious and everyone started running towards the end of the bridge. When they got there they say all the workers were wounded, some of them unconscious but most were groaning in agony. AJ, who was now fused with Neko, was looking over them, trying to find out how they were injured. He could sense the ones who caused this, but he didn't want to fight them until Kakashi and the others were here, just in case.

"Shin! What happened!?" Kakashi asked when they arrived.

"They were attacked, obviously. None of the workers are dead though." AJ answered.

"I might as well tell you now." AJ started, when suddenly a mist filled the area around them. Suddenly the land that seemed so close was invisible. "Zabuza's back." He noted.

"Sasuke! Sakura! Get ready!" Kakashi ordered, and quickly surrounded Tazuna. "I knew he was still alive… He just couldn't wait for round two."

AJ chuckled. "Neither could I."

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Zabuza's voice was heard around them. "If I had known you wanted to fight me so badly, I would have come back sooner. I'm more interested in Kakashi though."

AJ heard Sasuke was trembling, but noted that Sasuke wasn't scared, he was excited.

"Pitiful." Zabuza said simply.

"He's coming." AJ said suddenly.

"Sasuke, Shin." Kakashi ordered.

Six Zabuza clones appeared and surrounded them, and in the very next instant, AJ and Sasuke took them all out.

"Oooh. So you could tell they were water clones?" Zabuza asked rhetorically. "That one brat's improving. Looks like you might have _two_ rivals, Haku."

"So it seems."

Zabuza and the boy who was supposedly a Hidden Mist tracker both stepped forward.

'That voice. That scent. There's no doubt about it.' AJ sighed in disappointment. 'So is this what he meant when he said we would meet him again?'

"Well well, so it really was all an act." Kakashi noted. "What a cute little mask."

"Big phony." Sasuke said.

"So all that about being a tracker ninja protecting his village?" Tazuna asked.

"They seem to get along pretty well." AJ noted.

"They've probably been pulling scams like this for a long time." Kakashi added.

"He's got some nerve facing us again after pulling that trick!" Sakura yelled.

"And hiding behind a mask, even now? Who does he think he's fooling?" Kakashi added.

"Well speak for yourself, Sensei." Sakura noted.

If AJ wasn't in his combat state of mind he would have chuckled at that. She does have a point.

"That's it, I'm taking him out." Sasuke said. "Who does he think he's fooling? Hiding behind that mask like some sort of clown."

"Oh Sasuke! You're so cool!" Sakura fangirled.

Even AJ's serious battle mind faltered at that.

""Didn't he/I just say that?"" AJ and Kakashi said.

The masked boy, Haku, started the attack with a strange spinning move. He kept spinning rapidly, making him look like a tornado that slowly approached them. Sasuke and AJ both pulled put two kunai and prepared. Haku's spin abruptly slowed to a crawl as his Senbon needles clashed with Sasuke's kunai. He didn't stop spinning though, and his Senbon that he held in his hands soon bounced off AJ's kunai.

'Is he testing our speed? Really?'

"Sakura, stay back and protect Tazuna!" Kakashi ordered. "Let Shin and Sasuke handle this."

AJ retaliated and swung with his kunai, but Haku proved to be very fast as well and blocked the attack. Soon Sasuke and AJ were both attacking and blocking Haku's Senbon, creating sparks everywhere.

"We just want the bridge builder." Haku said while still attacking and deflecting. "If you just stand down-"

"Not gonna happen!" AJ interrupted.

"You're making a mistake, you won't be able to keep up with my speed." Haku said simply.

"Oh save it!" Sasuke yelled as he swung and actually almost hit Haku, but the attack was deflected as usual.

Haku kicked Sasuke away, but AJ kept up the assault with his kunai knifes. Haku kept blocking with just one hand, and used his other hand to make hand signs. One-handed signs were something AJ had never even heard of, so he tried to break Haku's focus, but he proved very capable of blocking with just one hand.

"Secret Jutsu: A Thousand Needles of Death!" Haku said before stomping the ground, specifically the puddle they were standing in, causing the water to rise up and take the shape of a large amount of needles. AJ grew frustrated and blew away Haku with a wave of Aura before creating a glyph above him to block the massive amount of needles that descended on him.

"You're not so fast." Sasuke said as he appeared behind Haku as he recovered.

Haku ducked under a kick aimed for his head, so Sasuke slashed at him with a kunai. He leaned away from the attack, so Sasuke threw the knife at him. Haku was just barely able to duck under it, before he had to jump up to avoid a sweeping kick courtesy of AJ, who was behind him. Haku spun in the air to avoid a shuriken that Sasuke threw, before he quickly landed and jumped away from AJ's stab. The Faunus and Sasuke both stood together and attacked. Haku ducked under a swing from Sasuke, then leaned around a stab from AJ, then leaned back from a kunai thrown by Sasuke, then jumped back from AJ trying to claw him. Sasuke kept up and swung for his head, and he was just able to deflect it with a Senbon. He had no time to block the kick in the chest that came from AJ, knocking him back towards Zabuza.

"Wow, you really thought you were the quickest of the three of us?" AJ asked, disappointed. 'Seriously!? Zabuza is shocked!? That Haku guy is nothing!'

"I wonder what else you're wrong about." Sasuke said with a confident smirk.

"You made a big mistake insulting these ninja." Kakashi said. "Calling them brats? That's just guaranteed to bring out Sasuke's attitude, and he's the best young fighter in the Hidden Leaf. Sakura here has the sharpest young mind. Shin, I've taken to calling him 'The Angel of The Leaf'. And last, but not least, our number one, hyperactive, knuckle-head ninja, is Naruto Uzumaki."

'He's not gonna like that he missed this fight.' AJ mentally commented.

Zabuza suddenly started laughing. "Haku, if we keep this up, we're gonna be the victims instead of them, get on with it!"

"Right."

'Why is the air getting cold?'

"I'm sorry it had to come to this." Haku said before making a hand sign.

Suddenly the water sprung up behind them, turning to ice. The ice clumped together till it became a perfect floating mirror. More flawless mirrors appeared around them before they had a chance to react, surrounding them on all sides and above them. Before AJ and Sasuke knew it, they were trapped in a dome of mirrors.

"Crystal Ice Mirrors!" Haku said, before _stepping into the mirror_. His image suddenly existed in the mirror, as if he became a part of it, then the mirrors reflected his image all around them.

Kakashi ran over to help them, but Zabuza got in the way. Rather than fighting, Zabuza requested that they watch instead of fight. If Kakashi insisted on trying to help the two, then he would only have to fight Zabuza, that would take too long.

"Now we'll begin, and I'll show you what true speed… really is." Haku said.

Suddenly a Senbon flew by from a different direction than the voice had come from, cutting into Sasuke's skin on the way by. Without warning, they were suddenly barraged by needles from all directions, as if every mirror image was throwing needles at them. AJ's Aura was able to withstand the endless needles, but Sasuke had no Aura, and was getting cuts all over him. He was starting to bleed in a lot of different places.

"Just try to help them, and I'll kill the other two in a heartbeat." Zabuza threatened to Kakashi, referring to Sakura and Tazuna.

Sakura had had enough, and jumped up before throwing a kunai all the way over to the dome. Haku partially appeared out of one of the mirrors and caught the kunai before dropping it. Sasuke fell over, unable to stand through all the pain. He was also glad the needles had finally stopped. Suddenly a shuriken flew in and hit Haku right in the mask, stunning him and causing him to fall out of the mirror completely.

'Oh, I guess he won't be completely missing the fight.'

In a massive puff of smoke, Naruto appeared outside the dome in a dramatic pose.

"Naruto Uzumaki… is here!" He yelled. "Yeah! Believe it!"

"I believe that you're an idiot!" AJ yelled angrily. "You could have stayed hidden!"

"Hey! I'm trying to help you, jerk!" Naruto yelled back, quickly dropping his dramatic pose.

"He's right. You really are a loser…" Sasuke managed to say.

"Save your energy." AJ requested to the boy he was trapped with.

"Anyway, you know how the hero comes in at the last minute and kicks butt!? Cause that's what I'm gonna do, right now!" Naruto yelled confidently. "Alright! You're history! Shadow Clone Jut-"

He was cut off when he saw Zabuza throw a couple of shuriken at him. AJ quickly put up a glyph between Naruto and the throwing stars, but was surprised to see Haku throw a few Senbon that stopped the shuriken, making the glyph unnecessary.

"What are doing, Naruto!? Are you crazy!?" Sakura yelled in the distance.

"This is a battle not a talent show!" Kakashi criticized. "Don't let your enemy see you use your Jutsu!"

'You would think that was obvious!'

"The shinobi's art is _deception!_ Always keep your enemy guessing!" Kakashi said. "Even when using a single Jutsu, one must distract their opponent's attention, catch them off balance, and outmaneuver them! You just turn yourself into a human target when you enter a battle like that."

Naruto realized his mistake. "Ah! I'm sorry! I was just trying to rescue everybody!"

"If we get out of this alive, you better learn your lesson." AJ commented. "Seriously, you need so much more training…"

"Haku? What are you doing?" Zabuza asked.

"Zabuza… this boy… let me fight him my own way, please." Haku requested.

"Bring it on!"

"So you want me to leave this to you, that it?" Zabuza asked. "As usual, you're too soft."

"Forgive me."

'He did avoid hitting vital spots with us, for whatever reason. It doesn't matter though.' AJ acted now that Haku was focused on Naruto. 'Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!'

Despite being made of ice, the mirrors gave zero fucks about the massive ball of fire that AJ breathed out.

"Oh come on!" He complained.

"That mask, and your bogus story, you were with Zabuza all along! You think you can get away with a stunt like that!?" Naruto yelled.

"I'm sorry." Haku said, surprising Naruto. "But it's as your sensei said: Deceiving you opponent? Catching them off guard? That is the art of the Shinobi. Please don't take it personally."

Sasuke threw a kunai at Haku from the side, and Haku simply leaned back to avoid it without even turning towards them.

"I may have let you get away with that fireball, but that doesn't mean I've forgotten about you two, not for an instant." Haku said, still staring at Naruto. "You won't accept that you've lost!? Fine! Let us finish our fight, to the death!" He said before walking back into his mirrors.

"Hey where are you going!?" Naruto asked.

"It's okay Naruto. We'll have our fight next." Haku said.

'He's going to attack again… Should I just let him? Let him kill me?... I want to see her again… but I never will, will I? Maybe I should just die… Just stop living with no purpose… I… I can't do that… I want to die… but I can't just let this guy kill me… I'll die fighting… someday… but for now… I can't let these kids die.' "Kakashi! Agh!" AJ called out before the barrage of needles began again.

"Don't even think about it, Kakashi." Zabuza threatened.

The barrage stopped for a moment. "Kakashi! I need to do it!" AJ yelled again.

"No! You can't!" Kakashi yelled back.

"If I don't stop holding back we will die in here!" AJ argued. "I get that they need to improve and all, but let me fight for real!"

"Hey! Don't worry Shin! I snuck in here to save you guys!" Naruto whispered, suddenly crouching next to AJ and Sasuke.

"You are not helping right now, you absolute _idiot_!" AJ yelled. 'Holy shit it is hard not to swear at this brat!'

"I have had it with your mistakes!" Sasuke yelled.

"And I've had it with your guys' attitudes!" Naruto yelled back.

"Kakashi!" AJ yelled again, demanding an answer.

'I can't do something without leaving the bridge builder open, and Sasuke, Naruto, and AJ will die if I don't let him go all out!' Kakashi realized. "Fine! Do it!"

AJ stood up, glared at one of the images on the mirrors, and shot his arms out to either side as Aura came bursting out of him. The force of the Aura made it impossible for Naruto and Sasuke to stand, and even Zabuza and the others felt the power coming from him.

A single tear leaked out of one of his eyes. 'Blake… I miss you… I miss you so much…'

The rush of power came to an abrupt end when a needle went through AJ's neck and he froze. "What?... how did he?..." He lost all control of his body and collapsed.

"Ah! Shin!" Naruto cried out.

"That one was far too dangerous." Haku commented. "Now, you two." And the barrage of needles began again. Not a single needle was aimed at AJ's immobile body, and he was helpless to stop the attacks aimed at the Genin. All he could do was watch as they were cut up more and more. Haku stopped aiming to cut them, and his needles were actually sticking into their bodies.

"We gotta find the real one!" Naruto said.

"Look into every mirror as hard as you like, you'll never find the real one." Haku said.

"Oh yeah!? Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

"No! Wait!" Sasuke yelled, but Naruto ignored him and all his clones attacked the mirrors at once. All the clones were taken out almost instantly, creating many a puff of smoke and knocking Naruto back to the ground.

"These mirrors only reflect my image, allowing me to transport myself at light speed." Haku said. "Through my eyes, you appear to be moving in slow motion."

"I couldn't get through, so what?" Naruto said. "I'm not gonna let him stop me! I'm not gonna give up and I'm not gonna lose here, cause I have a dream and no one is going to take it away from me! Someday I _will_ be respected in my village! I _will_ be the greatest Hokage!"

" _There's nothing wrong with dreaming about going back, AJ." The Hokage said to him, on another day on the same cliff._

" _Yes there is." AJ responded. "It's never going to happen, and I don't need a dream giving me false hopes."_

" _I keep trying to tell him otherwise, but he won't listen." Neko said in English._

" _Maybe your mind doesn't want you to forget about them." The Third wondered._

" _I want to forget about it all." AJ said sadly._

" _The pain of remembering them is better than forgetting your friends, forgetting everything they did for you." The Third argued. "I said it last month and I will say it again, never forget the ones you love. Please AJ, please don't forget them."_

" _Third." The Third stopped and looked AJ in the eyes. "Don't ever call me AJ ever again." He demanded and glared at the Hokage._

" _I will not respect this wish." The Third said, making AJ's glare become more intense. "I will not allow you to forget about them and everything that represents them. I will not stop calling you AJ just because that reminds you of your time on Remnant and all your friends._ I will not let you forget your loved ones, so don't you ever stop dreaming about going back to your loved ones. Don't ever lose hope." _With that, the Hokage walked away._

"It was not my desire to be a Shinobi, its painful." Haku said. "I don't want to kill you, but if you advance, I will have no choice. Then I will kill the kindness in my own heart, fully embrace the Shinobi way, and there will be no mercy, not turning back. This bridge will be the battlefield where our dreams collide. Now I must fight for my dream, just as you fight for yours. Please do not blame me. I fight for someone who is precious to me, I live for him, and I face death for him, so that his dream may become reality. That is my dream, and for the sake of that dream, if I must, I will act as a Shinobi, and take your lives!"

"Guys… be careful…" AJ managed to say before passing out.

He opened his eyes to find he was lying on his back, and someone was holding his head up.

"AJ! Come on! Wake up!"

'Who… who's saying that?'

Teary yellow eyes stared down at him.

'Wait…' "B-Blake!?"

"Please get up! You have to! You have to!" Blake cried out.

"Blake… I…" His vision blurred and his eyes closed again.

His eyes soon opened again and he saw Blake was still holding him, she looked over her shoulder, seeing something flying at her. "NO!" She yelled, jumping up and pulling out her katana to block the attack.

Sasuke blocked a Senbon that almost hit AJ in the face before rushing towards Naruto. He moved faster than AJ had ever seen and jumped in front of Naruto, who was down, taking all the hits that were meant for the blonde as well before kicking Haku and knocking him down.

"You always… get in the way, Naruto... It never fails…" Sasuke managed to say. Naruto looked up, and AJ just barely turned his head enough to see that Sasuke had needles sticking out of every point on his body.

"You beat him Sasuke!" Naruto said happily before realizing how many needles were in Sasuke.

Sasuke managed to turn his head slightly and look at Naruto. "You should see the look on your face… you look like a total loser…"

"Wait… why did you… save me? Why did you do it?" Naruto asked slowly, in shock.

"I don't know why… he came after you two and my body… just moved…" Sasuke answered, and he chuckled for some reason. "I… always hated you…"

"Then why!? Why did you save me!?" Naruto asked angrily, managing to stand up despite having needles in him as well. "I didn't ask for this! I didn't ask you to save me!"

"There… was no time to think… only time… to move…" Sasuke explain before falling back, with Naruto just barely caught him before he hit the ground. "He's… he's still out there… my brother. I promised myself, that I'd stay alive… until… I killed him…" He raised his hand slightly, as if reaching for Naruto. "Naruto… don't let your dream die…"

AJ could sense nothing from him… nothing at all… he was dead.

'No… If I hadn't been such an idiot! I could have saved them! GODDAMN IT! I WAS SUPPOSED TO SAVE THEM!'

"He found…" Haku started. "He found a strength he didn't know he had…"

 _Anger_

"Why, you might ask? Because of a certain person who was precious to him. To save that person, he rushed in, knowing it was a trap." Haku stood up inside one of his mirrors again. "He was a true ninja, worthy of honor."

 _Rage_

"Is this the first time you've seen a friend die in battle? This is part of what it means to be a ninja."

"Shut up…"

 _ **EVIL**_

A mist suddenly started appearing around Naruto as he rested Sasuke's body on the ground. "You'll pay for this."

Suddenly that mist turned into a dark red chakra that began swirling around him. The chakra tore apart the concrete floor around him as he crouched over his friend's body like a protective animal.

AJ had no control over his body, so all he could do was scream. Scream in absolute, overwhelming, fear.

Naruto looked up at Haku with blood red eyes, and darker, more prominent whisker like birth marks on his cheeks. **"I'm gonna kill you."**

All the needles were forced out of his body, and all his cuts healed in seconds. His finger nails grew into sharp claws, and his teeth grew longer and sharper. The chakra tornado took the shape of a fox at the top of it, and the creature roared.

Aura started flowing out of AJ's body, not even in his control. It swirled around him, as if trying to create a buffer between him and the evil red chakra.

The red chakra tornado faded away and Naruto began running on all fours at the mirror that Haku was in. Haku threw a trio of Senbon at him, but Naruto simply roared, releasing a wave of red chakra that blew away the needles. Haku quickly moved to another mirror before Naruto reached him. He then appeared on all the mirrors and unleashed Senbon that stabbed Naruto all over his body. Naruto flinched, but soon after shot his arms out to the side like AJ had while releasing a massive burst of chakra that pushed all the needles out of him.

Naruto rushed the mirror that Haku was in before he could react and punched the ice mirror, shattering it. Haku came out of one of the pieces of the mirror, trying to stab Naruto in the back from above, but Naruto spun out of the way without even looking. Haku tried to run back into his mirrors, but Naruto grabbed him by the wrist and cocked his fist back before slamming it into Haku's face, sending him right through one of his mirrors and sending him rolling away. All the other mirrors that were left shattered behind Naruto before he rushed at Haku who slowly stood up.

Haku's mask slowly broke off as he stood there, realizing that he could not beat Naruto. He simply awaited his death as Naruto descended on him…

…and stopped just an inch from hitting him.

He still kept growling for a bit longer, but soon relaxed and his eyes were back to their usual blue.

"So… that guy in the woods, that was you?" Naruto realized.

"Why do you not strike?" Haku asked, looking down at the boy in front of him. "Did you not just vow to avenge your comrade's death by killing me? Or was that vow just empty words?"

Naruto looked back at Sasuke's body before looking at Haku again, and growling as he tried to finish his punch, but couldn't bring himself to do it for a moment before he finally punched Haku, who simply stumbled back.

No longer gripped by fear and pain, AJ focused as hard as he could with his Aura, which was strangely hard to control at the moment. His Aura slowly pushed the needle out of his neck and slowly he began to gain control over his body again.

Haku fell from the punch, coughed up some blood, and stood up again. "No, that won't do. You're still holding back. If that is all the strength you can put into it, you will never keep your vow. Perhaps he didn't mean as much to you as you pretend. To show mercy to those who oppose the one you serve, to allow his enemies to live when you could strike them down… this is not compassion, it is a betrayal of your life's very purpose. For what reason do you exist then? You're of use to no one, your live has no meaning, it is mere existence. Day after day of pain and struggle, signifying nothing."

"Yeah well, speak for yourself!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Are you really that blind little one- I am speaking for myself." Haku explained before smiling. "This day has shown I am no longer any use to Zabuza."

"Why that guy anyway!?" Naruto asked. "To devote your life to a rotten skunk who doesn't know the meaning of the word 'honor'! If he's really the one person that matters to you, man that is the sorriest thing I've ever heard!"

AJ slowly walked up behind Naruto, sword drawn. Haku was talking, but he wasn't hearing it. He was just staring at the back of the clueless blonde's head. His head was filled with conflict and he couldn't hear anything, he couldn't even hear his own thoughts. He might as well have been mindless in that moment, where some strange instinct wanted him to kill, but the real him was trying to get control back. His head finally cleared and his iris', which had started glowing on their own, stopped glowing. He lowered his sword, before taking out a kunai and going to throw it at Haku's head.

"Naruto, if you do not do it, your friend behind you will." Haku said. AJ was finally able to hear again.

"Huh?" Naruto turned around and realized who was behind him. "Shin!? You're okay!" He said happily. AJ ignored him and simply got ready to kill Haku.

"I was not aware you were holding back the whole time we were fighting." Haku commented.

"I hope you don't hate me for that." AJ responded.

"Of course not. You gave the young ones a chance to learn, and when they were in danger, you dropped the act to protect them." Haku said simply. "Whatever power you have is great. You could have destroyed me and Zabuza at any point, couldn't you?"

AJ nodded. "Goodbye."

"Wait! Shin!"

For reasons AJ didn't know, he actually waited. "What?"

"It's alright. I can do it." Naruto explained before turning towards Haku and pulling out a kunai. "You know… if we met in another time and place, I think maybe we could have been friends… This is for Sasuke! Because he also had a dream! HAAAAAAAAAAH!"

Just before Naruto reached him, Haku's eyes widened and he grabbed the blonde's wrist to stop the attack. "Sorry Naruto… change of plans…"

"I won't let you!" AJ yelled as he appeared next to Haku, swung, and hit empty air. "Son of a-" He quickly ran towards Kakashi and Zabuza, where he felt Haku move to. If it wasn't for his emotion sense he would be running blindly through the fog. The fog was starting to lift though.

When he arrived, he saw Kakashi's hand, covered in lighting, stuck in Haku's chest. There was a lot of blood.

"So, my future's all used up huh?" Zabuza asked, laughing. Haku was standing between him and Kakashi. He had taken the hit from Kakashi's Lighting Blade for him. "Wrong again, Kakashi!"

"He saved your worthless life, at the cost of his own." Kakashi said. Haku smiled at him, somehow managing to stand and hold Kakashi's hand in place.

"Well done, Haku." Zabuza said before raising his sword, planning to cut through Haku to get to Kakashi. "I knew I'd found a treasure when I found you, boy! You've not only given me my life, but Kakashi's as well!"

A gloved hand caught Zabuza's blade and stopped it. Zabuza froze in shock while AJ, Aura flowing off of him, looked up and glared at him. "I guess I was wrong, you really don't care at all about Haku." He said, while Zabuza tried and failed to get his sword out of the Faunus boy's grip.

Kakashi quickly jumped back, cradling Haku's body and shutting the boy's eyes. "Shin…" AJ paused, realizing Kakashi was angry. "Step back. Zabuza's mine!"

AJ looked at Kakashi and let out an annoyed "Tch" before letting go of Zabuza' sword and backing off.

"Naruto! Over here!" Sakura yelled. "So you and Sasuke are alright!?"

'Oh… oh no…'

"Um…" Naruto couldn't find the will to say it.

"What's wrong!? Where's Sasuke?" Sakura asked, growing concerned.

"Sakura." AJ said, getting her attention as he walked over to her. "You… you need to just come with me."

"Where are we going?" Sakura asked.

"…To Sasuke…"

Sakura was still for a moment before he eyes widened as she realized what he meant. "No…

"I'd stay focused if I were you, Kakashi!" Zabuza yelled, charging. Kakashi responded with a kick to the face.

"I'll go with you as well, Sakura." Tazuna said. "That way you aren't disobeying your sensei's orders."

Sakura grabbed his arm and began running with AJ over to Sasuke, running right past Naruto who was putting all his focus into holding back his tears. He couldn't bring himself to look at her. There was no denying it once she got to his body, he really was dead. She fell to his side and cupped his cheek.

"His body is cold… this isn't just one of his Genjutsu tricks is it?" Sakura asked.

"I'm… so sorry… I failed to protect him…" AJ barely said above a whisper.

"Go on, you don't need to be brave on my account." Tazuna said. "Go ahead and let your feelings out, Sakura."

"Do it, Sakura. "AJ added. "I can't do that, but its better if you let it out. Go ahead."

"I was the best… aced every test in the academy. The perfect student." Sakura started emotionlessly. "Tazuna, did you know that there are more than one hundred principles of Shinobi conduct? I memorized every single one. I used to love it when they tested us on them, gave me a chance to show how smart I was." Her voice was clearly faltering at this point, and was only faltering more and more. "I remember, so clearly, this one exam. They asked us to explain the 25th principle, I got it right of course." She chuckled humorlessly and her breathe became shaky. "A Shinobi… never shows his feelings… no matter what the circumstances. Feelings are weakness, that only cloud his judgment and weaken his sense of duty." She finally let it out. "Sasuke!"

'Naruto… is overcome with grief… he thinks he failed… he's not the only one. Sasuke… is dead… and Sakura is grieving…

What the fuck is wrong with this world?

They're 12, give or take. They shouldn't have to go through this. Even if this is their choice to do this… on Remnant you were a bit older… you don't see full combat till you're 17… This is wrong, this whole fucking world is wrong. The way of Shinobi is fucked up! I don't want to be here anymore… I would take my Earth over this… Can someone just wipe my memory and send me back? I don't want to remember anything anymore…'

He came out of his own thoughts and saw the girl was still crying, then his eyes widened.

'Shit! I was so deep in thought I didn't notice!' AJ ran towards the end of the bridge, where Kakashi and Zabuza had been battling.

"Now both of your arms are useless, what now?" Kakashi asked, looking at Zabuza who had kunai in both is arms, making them useless. "You can't even make hand signs!"

"Kakashi!" AJ yelled, but he was too late to warn them.

"Did quite a job on ya, didn't he Zabuza? You look like yesterday's sashimi!" Everyone turned and saw a short man in a suit with black spectacles and a cane. "I must say I'm… disappointed."

Oh, and he had an army of men armed with many different kinds of blunt and sharp melee weapons standing behind him.

'So… that must be Gato.' AJ realized.

"Gato? I don't understand. What is all this?" Zabuza asked. "Why are you here, and who are these thugs you've brought with you.

"Well you see there's been a slight change in plan." Gato started, tapping his cane against the ground. "According to the new plan, you die right here on this bridge, Zabuza."

"What!?"

"That's right, you're too expensive, so I've decided to take you off the payroll." Gato explained. "Of course, even these thugs I brought with me cost something, so if you could manage to slaughter a few of them before they take you down, I'd appreciate it. Think you can manage that, 'Demon Ninja of The Mist'?" He said with a laugh. "Look at you, you look about as demonic as a wet kitten." The rest of the thugs laughed at this.

"Well, now that I see who you worked for, I'm surprised that you're surprised he did this to you." AJ commented to Zabuza.

"Well well Kakashi, it would seem our fight is at an end." Zabuza realized. "Since I am no longer in Gato's employ, Tazuna is safe. We have no quarrel."

"Yeah, I suppose you're right." Kakashi agreed.

" 'Enemy of my enemy' kind of fits this scenario as well." AJ commented.

Gato walked up to Haku's dead body. "That reminds me… You little punk! You grabbed me and nearly broke my arm! I've been meaning to repay you for that!" *Kick* "Heh, I only wish he was alive to feel it."

"GET AWAY! GET AWAY FROM HIM YOU SCUM!" Naruto yelled, trying to run past Kakashi and at Gato.

Kakashi grabbed him from behind and held him back. "Stop! Use your head!"

AJ threw a kunai next to Gato's head, and the man flinched a little.

"Hey! Watch it, you!" Gato yelled angrily. AJ glared back strongly at him, eyes glowing, causing Gato to flinch.

"And what about you, Zabuza!?" Naruto yelled at the man in front of him. "You gonna let him do that!?"

"Be quiet you fool! Haku's dead, what does it matter?" Zabuza waved him off without looking back at Naruto.

"What!? You mean you can just stand there and watch him get treated like a dog!? You and Haku were together for years, doesn't that mean anything to you!?" Naruto demanded.

AJ wanted to destroy Gato and all his thugs… but he wanted to know what Zabuza had to say about this first.

"You don't understand the way of the Shinobi. I merely used him, just as Gato used me." Zabuza answered. "Now it's over. His usefulness is at an end. The loss of his strength and skill? Yes, _that_ means something to me. But the boy?... Nothing!"

"If you mean that, you're an even bigger rat than I thought!" Naruto said angrily.

"Okay, that's enough. Calm down Naruto, he's not the enemy, not right now." Kakashi said, resting a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

Naruto angrily shook his hand off. "Shut up! Far as I'm concerned, he's enemy number one!" He yelled, pointing at Zabuza's back. "Why you…grr… you ungrateful… After everything he did for you… Haku _lived_ for you! You were the most important thing in the world to him! And he meant nothing to you!? NOTHING AT ALL!? While he was sacrificing _everything_ for you, you really didn't feel anything at all for him!? And if I become stronger… does that mean… that I'll end up being as cold hearted as you are!? He threw his life away! AND FOR WHAT!? FOR YOU AND YOUR DREAM!?" Naruto's emotions got the best of him and tears were leaking out his eyes. "You never let him have a dream of his own, but he didn't care… and you just toss him aside, like he was nothing!? A broken tool… man that's so wrong… that's so wrong!" Zabuza hadn't even tried to respond to anything Naruto said, didn't try to answer a question, didn't try to defend himself, he just let the boy get everything out first.

AJ's eyes widened greatly in shock. 'Oh my god… he's crying.'

"You talk too much…" Zabuza finally said, still not turning around. Tears were freely flowing from his eyes as well. He tilted his head back slightly and looked up at the sky. "You're words cut deep, deeper than any blade. While he fought you, his heart was breaking in two. You see, Haku was always too soft and too kind. He felt pain, sorrow, and now, curse him, I feel them too! And something else… I feel content that this is the way it ends for me… You're right, I should have seen this coming. I did, really, and I did nothing to stop it."

Using only his mouth he was able to rip the bandage like wrapping around his mouth, revealing his sharp teeth. "Well… cat got your tongue?" He asked, turning his head slightly towards Naruto. "Are you so surprised to discover that I'm human? Even Shinobi are human, no matter how hard we try to escape that simple fact, we always fail." He smiled. "Well… at least… _I_ have failed. One of you! Give me a kunai!" AJ slowly walked up to him and handed him a kunai, which Zabuza took and held in his mouth before rushing Gato and his men.

"Ah! That's enough of this! Do it! Take him down now!" Gato ordered while he ran and hid behind his men, who were foolishly confident that they could take down Zabuza.

Zabuza ran through the mob with ease, cutting people with the knife in his mouth, or kicking them down. He was able to flawlessly dodge blades of all shapes and sizes, well, except for the spear that was stabbed into his back. But, he didn't stop there, he kept running through the mob, taking down any that got in his way. Eventually he broke through to the other side, at the edge of the bridge, where Gato had foolishly trapped himself. In that moment of fear, he saw why Zabuza was 'The Demon of The Mist' before Zabuza ran into him and stabbed him with the kunai. That was when a couple more spears were stabbed into his back, making it about six sticking out of him.

"You crazy fool…" Gato said weakly, stepping out of the way. "If you're so eager to join your friend, go ahead. But you're not taking me!... Not this time!"

"I won't be joining Haku." Zabuza corrected. "Where he's gone I cannot follow." He began walking towards Gato, slowly.

"Stay back! Stay back!" Gato foolishly ordered, backing towards the edge.

Zabuza got real close to Gato and leaned forward to look him in the eyes. "No my friend, it's the other place _we're_ going to! You and me both, Gato! I can't think of a more fitting destination for a demon ninja, can you!?" Zabuza asked, smiling evilly. "I'm told there are many demons down there, of all shapes and sizes! Oh yes I should fit right in! You on the other hand, Gato, well I fear you are in for a long and painful eternity!" He swung his head from side to side, slashing Gato multiple times with the kunai that was still in his mouth before one final slash threw Gato off the bridge.

*Splash*

Everyone was dead silent for a moment, then Zabuza turned towards the thugs, who all recoiled in fear and got out of his way. He dropped the kunai and slowly walked towards Haku's body. He didn't make it, however, and fell on his knees. "Haku…" He said weakly before totally collapsing.

Naruto looked away.

"Don't turn away!" Kakashi ordered. "When you live like a warrior, this is how it ends."

 _Discomfort_

'Wait… Sasuke!?'

"Naruto! Shin! Look!" They heard Sakura yell, and the boys turned to see Sakura, Tazuna, and Sasuke all standing. Sasuke even hesitantly waved at them.

'Haku must have aimed to not really kill him!'

"Well well, will wonders never cease." Kakashi commented, smiling under his mask. "Amazing."

AJ sighed in relief. 'I really didn't fail them… Thank you, Haku.'

"Don't go getting too comfortable!" One of the thugs yelled, all of them grinning and wanting to fight.

"This party ain't over yet! Who's gonna pay us now that Gato's gone!?"

"No way we're gonna leave here empty handed, so we'll just have to hit that village and see what they've got for us!"

"Normally that wouldn't be good… but…" Kakashi started.

"Sooo… are you saying I can handle them for you?" AJ asked hopefully.

Kakashi grinned under his mask. "They can safely rebuild whatever you break afterwards… Have fun."

AJ grinned madly at the thugs. "Alright!" He let out a large amount of Aura, making the thugs take a step back.

"So! You're just one guy! You can't stop us!" One of the thugs yelled before they all charged.

AJ smirked, sensing many emotions behind him. Suddenly a crossbow bolt landed between the thugs and him. He looked behind him and saw Inari, armed with a crossbow, and all the other villagers, armed with other weapons as well, farming tools and the like.

"There's one little thing you're forgetting about!" One of the villagers next to Inari and Tsunami started. "Before you set one foot in our village, you'll have to go through all of us!" All the villagers cheered and lifted up their weapons.

"Inari!" Naruto said happily as he looked at the boy at the front of the mob.

Tazuna couldn't help but shed a tear of joy as his grandson and whole village were finally standing up for themselves. Now the thugs were starting to look scared.

"No way I'm letting you guys have all the fun! Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto yelled.

"Oh please! You're not gonna have anything left to fight when I'm done with them." AJ said before running so fast he basically teleported right through the mob, leaving feathers everywhere. "HAAAAAH!" He smashed the ground, shooting out a wave of Aura in all directions that knocked all the thugs down or off the bridge and into the water. Naruto and AJ began taking down the rest that were on the bridge while they tried to run onto their boat that was off to the side of the bridge.

A few actually managed to make it, but AJ decided to leave them alone. They had scared them off, that's what mattered. Everyone cheered happily as they were finally safe, save Kakashi. He walked up to Zabuza, who was still on the floor.

"Sounds like it's over." Zabuza commented. AJ walked up to them as well. "Kakashi, I have a favor to ask."

"What is it?"

"Take me to him." Zabuza answered. "Before I go I need to see him one last time."

"Sure." Kakashi answered.

The cheering soon stopped as everyone saw Kakashi carrying Zabuza, who now had no spears in his back, and AJ walking by his side.

An unusual phenomenon forced everyone to look up at the sky.

"Snow? At this time of year?" One villager said.

"Impossible!" Another exclaimed.

Normally he would have liked snow, but right now it just made AJ sad.

Kakashi gently set Zabuza down next to Haku's body as the snow continued to ever so slowly fall. "Thank you, Kakashi…" Zabuza turned and looked at Haku. "You were always at my side, the least I could do, is to be beside you at the end…" He fought through the pain and slowly moved his hand towards Haku's face. "I know it cannot be, but… I wish I could go… to where you have gone. How I wish I could… join you there. Haku…"

The clouds parted slightly and let a ray of light shine on Haku's face.

Naruto, despite being in tears, spoke. "He told me…*Sniffle* Where he came from it was always snowing. *Sniffle* All the time."

"Of course… his spirit was as pure as the snow." Kakashi realized.

AJ sniffed hard, sucking in his tears as he looked down at Haku and Zabuza. "As… as someone who is part angel… I would like to vouch for Zabuza to go… to heaven. I… I think he's earned it. I might be a bit biased… but I think those two shouldn't… be apart…" He said quietly.

"Maybe he will join him there… who's to say?" Kakashi said just loud enough for AJ to hear.

AJ decided to leave before he started crying, disappearing to anywhere but there.

* * *

Eventually he joined up with his team again, as they stood on a cliff, with two cross's stabbed into the ground, and Zabuza's blade resting nearby. There was a beautiful sunset going on at the moment.

"Is that really it, Kakashi sensei?" Sakura asked. "Is that the ninja way? To use and be used by people, like tools?"

Kakashi took a second to think about his answer. "Shinobi are all merely tools in the hands of destiny, no point in wondering whether it's right or wrong, it just is. It's the same in the Village Hidden in The Leaves."

"Well if you ask me, if that's what being a ninja is all about, something's out of whack!" Naruto said.

"Absolutely." AJ commented.

Naruto looked down sadly. "Is that why we go through all this training? Just to end up like them?"

"What is the reason for that?" Sasuke asked.

Kakashi sighed. "Well… it's a question without an answer, and that is something we ninja have to deal with for the rest of our lives. Like Zabuza… and the kid…"

'This world is so wrong… I have to get out of here somehow…'

"Okay!" Naruto suddenly exclaimed, like he had decided something. He looked up at the sunset. "I've just come to a decision! From now on, I'm finding my own ninja way! A way that's straight, and true, and without any regrets! From now on I'm following the way of Naruto!"

AJ smiled. "You know, you may be incredibly annoying, Naruto… but you're not all bad."

He figured Naruto wouldn't really take that as a compliment, but the blonde actually turned and gave him a big smile. The Faunus didn't get why Naruto felt so proud right then.

* * *

With no one to get in their way, the bridge was soon finished, and Squad 7 was ready to cross that bridge to head home.

"We could never have finished the bridge without you! I can't tell you how much we're going to miss you!" Tazuna said as he and the whole village stood before the ninja to watch them as they left.

"Do be careful." Tsunami added.

"Thank you, for everything." Kakashi said politely.

"Now now! Don't get all choked up!" Naruto said. "We'll come back and visit real soon!"

Inari was fighting back tears. "You swear you will?"

Aaaand Naruto started tearing up as well. "Of course. You know, Inari, it's okay to cry if you want. There's nothing wrong with that. Go for it!"

"Who says I'm going to cry!?" Inari asked. "Anyway, if it's alright to cry, why don't you go on and cry!?"

"No! You first!" Naruto demanded, sounding like he was straining himself just to not cry. Both of the fools were about to break down. "Forget it!" Naruto yelled, turning away so Inari wouldn't see that he had started crying. There was nothing to be done at that point but to start walking across the bridge, so the Leaf Ninja did just that.

"Shin!" AJ heard Inari yell as they were walking away. He looked over his shoulder at the crying boy, who wiped his tears away from a moment and smiled at him. "Thank you for keeping your promise!" He thanked, waving. AJ smiled slightly and gave a thumbs up back to him before continuing to walk away.

"Haha! As soon as we get back, I'm gonna have Iruka sensei fix me up a whole mess of ramen to celebrate a mission accomplished! Oh! And just wait till I tell Konohamaru about all my adventures! The kid's gonna worship me!"

"Hey?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah?" Naruto said hopefully.

"Not you, Naruto!" Sakura denied. "Sasuke! When we get back you wanna out and do something together?" She asked hopefully.

"I don't think so, thanks." Sasuke answered simply.

"Oh…okay…"

"Sakura! I'd do something with you if you want!" Naruto suggested hopefully.

"Hey!" Sakura lifted him up by his collar and shook him. "That was a private conversation! Beat it!" She yelled, throwing him off the bridge.

AJ glanced over, then decided he didn't care enough to do anything about it and simply kept walking.

* * *

 **FINALLY I'M DONE WITH THIS CHAPTER!**

 **Yeah, AJ has been holding back SO MUCH because Kakashi told him to. The kids will only improve if they fight, so AJ can't go beating everything. With that in mind, it would have been** _ **so**_ **easy to just have him kick Haku's ass, but I couldn't. I COULD NOT CHANGE THE WAY THAT ENDS. The way Haku and Zabuza die nearly brings me to tears, it makes me sad and it makes me love the bad guys and hope they go the heaven. I couldn't change that! I couldn't! I will, however, be a bit less lenient with other canon scenes, and I will also stop having him hold back as much.**

 **Ads are a pain and I've had to resort to watching the Naruto episodes on Youtube… yeah… not fun…**

 **Well, anyway, hope you found this chapter… satisfactory… I guess. It's hard to make a character be the center of things when he doesn't want to do anything…**

 **Follow, fav, review if you want, just don't flame.**

 **Have a great week everyone!**


	5. Confrontations Abound

**What am I trying to accomplish with this book of Fate? Nothing much, just take a character that I created in my image and break him a little. You can still see the old him (The one from Remnant) come through occasionally though. How much or how little does it take for that open, nicer version of him to come to the surface? How does he feel about or act around the people around him? Things like that will clue you in to his mental state at the time. The people he meets and interacts with in this world will impact him, sometimes in good ways, sometimes in bad ways. Will the old him ever return? Will having someone like Naruto around improve the chance of that, or hinder it? That's what this book is about. It's going through the ride that is canon, with extra scenes in between, and seeing how it affects him. It's the slower part of Fate.**

 **Like I said though, I'll do what I can to make things interesting for you readers.**

 **One big change though is that he is much stronger. He gets much stronger with time, and it's been a long time. This chapter will show off a bit of what he can do, and also give you a bit of an idea of his abilities compared to others in the world.**

 **Hope you enjoy.**

 **(Also, first world problem. I can't decide whether to listen to RWBY music or Naruto opening and ending music while writing this fic. XD)**

* * *

Tortured Soul Ch.5

* * *

 _As my fingers trace the scar of this frozen bond_

AJ is shown walking along the edge of a forest at night, he doesn't have his cloak and touches two scars running down the left side of his face. He looks distant and lonely as he slowly walks along the path and stares at the ground in thought.

 _Deep within the crevice tearing my broken heart_

He shuts his eyes tight as tears fall out of them and he sobs quietly.

 _My body is wondering on…_

 _All my thoughts evaporate into shapeless dark_

He opens his eyes and a few tears continue to fall but now he looks very angry as he grits his teeth and glares up at the camera.

 _Faded like the past decays in a memory_

His eyes turn red and his teeth grow sharp. He turns back to normal as he suddenly snaps his head in the direction of the forest and catches a glimpse of someone that looked like Blake.

 _Now I search for an illusion_

He runs frantically through the forest looking in every direction for her and eventually comes to a small clearing and falls to his knees and cries again. He keeps his mouth shut tight gritting his teeth together, he also keeps his eyes shut tight but once again tears get through.

 _I will try to wield power over destiny…_

 _In the world that shined for me_

White Aura blasted out of him and he stood up and rushed further into the forest still frantically searching.

 _My memories live on_

He thought about teams RWBY and JNPR and the things they had done together.

 _Forgotten dreams call out_

He stopped for a moment and looked around.

 _To stars that I once wished upon_

He smiled as he looked up at the stars through a hole in the canopy of trees, before rushing out again.

 _Now I see the scenery_

He continued to run but now tears ran down his face as he ran.

 _Distilled inside my mind_

 _That never ending night_

Scene of him crying in his sleep.

 _And days stretch forever_

Scene of him walking around the village looking distant.

 _Though we're far apart, you are still in my heart_

He thought about Blake again and ran faster.

 _And no mere separation_

He let out another burst of Aura and went into his second stage where his Aura took the form of see though wings behind him.

 _Will stop this light from reaching you_

Blake was visited by a white light in her dream back on Remnant.

 _A miracle_

AJ jumped out into another clearing and looked at the camera. He started building up Aura into his right hand, so much it was a light show of bright white mist so bright it actually is blinding.

 _Will finally come true_

He charged at the viewer with his lightshow of a punch.

Change scene and camera looks at a Naruto in nine tails mode covered in red chakra.

Camera turns to the Sasuke in his second stage curse mark.

Camera turns again to see AJ glaring at the two before charging at them as we hit the static part of the song they charge at each other and the screen goes black.

Tortured Soul, A multiverse Fanfiction

* * *

"Agh!" Sasuke cried out in pain and fell to his knees, unable to fight any longer. His enemy threw a kunai right at him, and he was too weak and in too much pain to move. Luckily, Naruto jumped in front of him and deflected the kunai before looking over his shoulder at Sasuke.

"What's the matter, Sasuke? Can't take care of yourself?" Naruto asked, giving a cocky grin.

"Let us know when you're done fantasizing so we can start the mission, alright Naruto?" Kakashi asked.

"Alright!" Naruto yelled excitedly. He was ready for the mission to play out just like that.

"Hey, Kakashi sensei? Where's Shin?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Oh he's… uh… on a mission." Kakashi answered hesitantly.

"What!? What kind of mission is he on!? It better not be something better than what we're getting!" Naruto said threateningly.

'Finally! After all those lame little missions with those kids, I get to go on a real mission! I get to let loose a little! Kill shit!' AJ thought excitedly as he began leaping from branch to branch, heading away from the village.

His mission? Stop a team of bandits in the forest that had been proving much more difficult to get rid of than normal bandits.

Not many better ways to safely release pent up energy, in his opinion. He really needed to kill something after all those boring missions. The one in the Land of Waves a few weeks ago had been interesting, but he didn't get to kill anything then.

He wished he didn't have two Anbu Black Ops members watching him from a safe distance. Sure, he couldn't see them, but he could sense them, and he knew that they knew he could sense them. The Hokage simply sent them just to be safe. Shin wasn't exactly born in The Hidden Leaf, and he hadn't been there long, so it was understandable that they didn't fully trust him to do a mission alone.

He eventually reached the area he was told to go to, and he sensed a group in the distance. The area was heavily forested, with tall trees and a canopy that let little light in. The light that did make it through came in beautiful rays of light, and the leaves blew in the wind, creating a shimmering effect. He would have loved to admire it, but he was currently sitting on a high up branch that had a view of a path through the forest. The right side of the path inclined and eventually led to his tree and the ones around him, and the left side of the path rapidly declined and would not have been fun to tumble down.

Six men, armed with swords and spears, were walking up the path. They were the bandits, and they looked like they were heading somewhere with intent. They didn't have any loot with them at the moment, however, and they also didn't know he was there.

He was practically shaking with excitement.

He performed a few hand signs. 'Auric Art: Fatal Feathers Jutsu!' He crossed his arms in an X shape and clenched his fists. Suddenly six white feathers appeared between his fingers, three on each hand. With a flick of his arms, he threw the feathers at the unsuspecting bandits. They flew as fast as any kunai, but they literally tore through anything they hit, creating holes you would expect from a , or in this case, tearing through three of the bandits like you would expect from a . The feathers also tore into the ground, kicking up a lot of dirt and dust, as well as making a sound like an explosion.

While the ones that were alive panicked, he let out his Aura and jumped from his branch. He was on them in moments. Of the remaining three, two had swords, and one had a spear. He stabbed one of the swordsmen with a kunai before throwing the kunai at the other swordsman, who recovered soon enough to dodge the knife before attacking with a battle cry. AJ effortlessly leaned away from two slashes before cutting the man's sword arm with his claws.

The spearman attacked from behind, and he spun around to dodge, simultaneously grabbing the spear by the pole and redirecting the attack towards the swordsman. He dodged, unfortunately, so AJ decided to just take the spear away and throw it over the left side of the path, down the slope.

The swordsman attacked with his fists, and AJ caught his fist in his hand before stabbing him in the chest with his claws and throwing him down the slope as well, watching him roll down. The spearman pulled out his backup knife and went to stab AJ in the back. Without even moving, Shin created a glyph behind him that blocked the blade. He slowly turned around and stared at the man, who looked at him in anger and fear.

"Where is your base camp!?" AJ suddenly demanded.

The man saw that he still had his knife, so he ignored the cat-eared boy's question and lunged again. AJ caught his attack by his wrist and twisted it till the man let go of his knife and let it fall to the floor.

"Well!?" The man stared defiantly at him, so he twisted his wrist further and broke it. "Do you not care if I kill you or something!?" He projected his voice, keeping the man afraid.

"I won't betray the others!" The man yelled, despite his pain.

"Sorry, but I need that information!" AJ yelled before slashing the man's arm with his claws and stepping on his broken wrist. "I will make sure you die a slow and painful death if you refuse to tell me!"

"And what if I do tell you!? You're just gonna kill the others!" The man argued.

"True, but you all steal from innocent people just passing through, so I think you all deserve it." AJ argued, before clawing the man's body, just deep enough to make him bleed.

"What would I get if I told you where they were anyway!?" The man asked.

"I will heal all your wounds and let you walk away from here. You can even try to warn your friends if you want." AJ answered. "Just don't try to fight me yourself, because I _will_ kill you."

"Why should I believe you?" The man asked weakly.

AJ crouched next to him and grabbed his broken wrist, causing the man to wince. AJ's hand glowed, and suddenly the man felt his bones realign.

"Slow, incredibly painful death? Or, you live? Make your choice soon. You have ten seconds." AJ said.

"A-Alright… fine… We're a few miles further north." The man said hesitantly and shamefully. "It's hard to see our camp because we camouflaged it, covered it with branches and leaves."

"You made the right choice." AJ said, before reaching into one of his pouches, pulling out a knife, and slitting the man's throat with it. "Quick death…" He said to himself as the man bled out. He turned and started walking north.

Neko appeared on his shoulder. "I thought you were going to let him live."

"Of course not. He doesn't deserve to live." AJ responded. "I lied to get the information I kind-of-sort-of needed." He could sense Neko's disappointment. "The report said that they hadn't stolen money from a single rich person, or person who deserved to be stolen from. Anyone that had put up a fight against them was killed. They are low-life bandits, simple as that."

He continued a few more miles north through the dense forest, which wasn't exactly in his search area, and soon he could sense a decent group of people nearby. There were lots of traps in the trees, wires that were probably connected to some sort of alarm system. He was able to avoid the thin wires and get close enough to be on a branch directly above the camp. From above, he could barely see the camp, but it seemed that there was one main entrance that led to a central courtyard. The largest building was right across from the entrance on the opposite side of the courtyard, and there were two smaller buildings on either side of the courtyard.

It would have been easy to set the place on fire with all the leaves on top of the buildings, but that might burn the whole forest down, so he decided to just walk through the front entrance. The two guards at the front sounded the alarm before charging him. He suddenly appeared behind them and they both collapsed. The place was in a frenzy as people were scrambling to get their weapons and the ones that had their weapons ready were heading into the courtyard to stop him. He let his Aura out and let them come to him.

"I have come to make you all pay for all the people you robbed and killed!" AJ yelled.

The first one lunged with a spear, and AJ deflected and wrenched the weapon from the man's hands before slashing him with his claws. He swung horizontally with the spear, taking out two more, before dodging a sword from his right and kicking the offender down so hard he broke a rib or two. He threw the spear at one bandit who came out of the building on the right with a bow and arrow. The spear went through him and pinned him to the wall of the building.

Shin backflipped over a lunge from behind and landed on the man's back before stabbing him in the back of the head with a kunai. He pulled out a second kunai with a paper tag attached to it. A small glyph appeared behind him to block a swordsman's attack before he jumped over another spear and threw the tagged kunai at the main building. The kunai stuck into the front wall of the building before the tag detonated, blowing a hole in the wooden building and taking out the three men that had just come out of there.

He punched the ground with an Aura enhanced punch when he landed, cracking the ground and knocking the bandits closest to him into the air. He dashed around at blinding speeds and slashed them with kunai before they hit the ground. He then dashed through the crowd of men around him, cutting every other bandit in a vital spot. He finally moved slow enough for them to see him and he ran at one man with a shield and sword. He planted both feet into the shield and the kick sent the man out of the camp.

Two spearmen attacked him from the front and back at the same time, and he jumped over the attack at the last second, causing the men to stab each other. Someone grabbed him from behind and wrapped their arms around his neck, so he grabbed them and quickly flipped them over his shoulder, right onto a swordsman in front of him. He fired an Energy blast at them while they were down. The few bandits left were starting to run, but one behind him still wanted to fight. He created a glyph to block the attack, but he heard the glyph shatter and it was too late to move before he felt something slam into his back and send him into the right building.

He jumped back out of the building to see someone wearing samurai armor.

"Damn it! I wish it didn't take so long to put on this armor!" The man said angrily. "I failed my men, and I couldn't stop you before you killed them, but I will avenge them now!" The man rushed AJ, who's eyes widened as he actually had to go on the defensive and dodge the man's fists. This one moved with the speed of a real ninja, and hit pretty damn hard, so Shin kept backing up and leaning away from the attacks.

After getting tired of dodging, AJ struck back, but the man leaned away from his attack as well before swinging again. AJ deflected the blow before jumping away.

"Where's your sword?" He asked, curious.

"I'm not really a samurai. I stole this while I was in The Land of Iron." The tall muscular man answered. "I'm a ninja, like you. Though I'm not a Leaf Ninja."

"Everyone hates the leaf." AJ noted, adjusting his headband. "Look, just because we're better, doesn't mean you have to hate us."

The man growled angrily before making a few hand signs and slapping the ground with his hands, "Earth Style: Rock Pellet Barrage!", causing the ground to erupt and the rocks that flew up to then fly at AJ, who created a glyph to block them. The glyph blocked the rocks, but then the man used another Jutsu "Earth Style: Rock Crusher!", that coated his hands in rock before charging and breaking right through the glyph.

AJ jumped away from him and landed on the roof of the broken larger building. He grinned madly before suddenly appearing midair next to the man, who blocked the knee attack with his rock-covered hands, creating a small shockwave from the force that was just stopped. "Finally! Someone who's remotely a challenge!" He said before flashing away again.

The man looked around for a moment, trying to locate his smaller opponent before suddenly looking up and raising his arms just in time to block Shin, who tried to land on him foot first. The ground under him cracked from the force of the attack once again. AJ dashed away once again, but this time the man saw it coming and smashed the ground in front of him with his fists. AJ had realized this and stopped mid-charge, _just_ before he would have been smashed, though the force of the attack made him stumble back.

The man swung with his massive fist, and AJ jumped and spun over the attack before landing and jumping again to dodge the other fist. He punched the man square in the chest, causing him to slide back a good distance.

"You're pretty strong, and pretty fast despite being hit by me." The man said, smiling at little. "What are you, huh? You should have been down after that first hit."

AJ grinned at him with wide eyes, making him look kind of insane. "Are you kidding!? If I went out that quickly, neither of us would get to have any fun!" He rotated the cylinders in his wrist guards, and activated ice Dust in his right hand before slapping the ground with that hand, creating ice on the floor in front of him. He deactivated the Dust, and stomped the ground with his right foot, shattering the ice and knocking the shards into the air in front of him. He let out a pulse of Aura that shot the ice shards towards his opponent.

The man raised his rock arms to protect his face from the shards, but the rest of his body was still hit by them, weakening him. He lowered his arms to see AJ dashing around left and right, quickly getting closer to him. He was barely able to follow his movements before AJ appeared to his right and hit him in the side, then he dashed away and appeared to his left and hit him again, then he appeared on the right again and punched the back of his leg hard, sweeping him off the ground. Shin dashed away before appearing again below his airborne body, still looking like he was insane. He punched the man's back with both fists, sending him flying high into the air, almost above the canopy. He then appeared above the man and put both his hands together before striking down, sending the massive man crashing into the ground. He then built up a large amount of Energy and created a glyph in his hand that increased the power of the shot as he fired it downwards, creating so much dust you couldn't see anything below.

Eventually the dust cleared and there wasn't a camp anymore.

Neko decided it was best to get out of his head so his Faunus side wasn't affecting him anymore. He pressed his paw lightly against AJ's cheek while the boy tried to slow his breathing.

"Alright AJ, you can relax now. You got that out of your system, you can relax." Neko said calmly as AJ continued to breathe heavily.

"Yeah… right… that should hold me over for a little bit. Still wish I got to fight tougher enemies." AJ said, finally calming down.

"Well if you went on missions any tougher than this you would have to go with other ninja." Neko pointed out.

"Oh. I don't wanna work with people." The boy whined.

"Well, sooner or later we have to go on another mission with Squad 7, so you might wanna get used to that." Neko suggested.

"Ugh. But Naruto is so fucking stupid sometimes!" AJ complained to no one as he started walking in the direction of the village, before creating his Aura bow and using that repeatedly to start teleporting there.

* * *

After many a teleportation through the sky, he landed in front of the main gate to the Hidden Leaf, letting the guards up top and at the gate see him as he walked back in. He intended to head over to the Hokage to report that the mission was complete, and also get paid for it. He left his emotion sense on and was focusing on every emotion he could find, it helped keep his mind occupied. A few emotions that he sensed in one area caught his focus though. Most of them seemed concerned and frightened and angry, but one of them seemed to be having fun. AJ couldn't stand bullies, so he went over to check it out.

He arrived on a tree near the side path and found that Naruto and Sakura were there. Behind them were two kids, even younger than them, but there was also a third kid. That third kid, which wore a scarf, was being held in the air by some foreign ninja not much older than Naruto and Sakura.

The guy wore some kind of baggy full body suit that was black, it had a red and yellow circle on the front, and the hood had what looked like ears at the top. He wore black fingerless gloves, like AJ, and he had something attached to his back, but it was covered in wrappings so you couldn't tell what it was. The guy had purple face paint on, especially around his eyes and lips. He had a metal head protector on his hood that indicated he was a ninja from the Village Hidden in the Sand.

"So, does this hurt, punk?" The guy asked, clearly enjoying the pain he was causing the kid that he was holding by his scarf.

"Put him down, Kankuro, or you know you'll pay for it later." The girl behind him warned, looking around wearily.

The girl had a Sand Ninja headband as well, though she wore it around her neck. She has teal eyes and sand blond hair which was in four separate ponytails. She wore an off-the-shoulders whiteish garment that went half way down her thighs, fishnet over her shoulders and right calf and left thigh, and what looked like a large collapsible fan strapped to her back with a scarlet red sash.

"Hey, I'm sorry. The whole thing was my fault." Sakura said, trying to remain calm.

"You better take your hands off him, right now!" Naruto yelled angrily, not caring about remaining calm.

"We've got a few minutes before he gets here, let's mess with these punks, huh?" Kankuro suggested to the girl behind him.

'Alright, enough of this.' AJ thought before dashing next to Kankuro and grabbing him by the wrist of the hand that was holding the kid. The girl took a step back and reached for her fan, while Kankuro's eyes widened before he glared at AJ.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing!?" He said threateningly.

"Drop the kid, or I break your wrist." AJ said simply, glaring at Kankuro, who growled at him.

""Shin!"" Naruto and Sakura yelled, happy to see him.

"Who do you think you are!?" Kankuro asked.

"Let go of my brother!" The girl ordered.

"You don't get to walk into this village and start trouble." Shin said, not turning his head but looking towards the girl before looking back at Kankuro. "You have ten seconds to let go of the kid."

"I'll have you know we have business in this village!" The girl argued.

"Well I think you should tell your brother here that your business in this village isn't to hurt little kids. Nine…eight…" AJ started counting.

The girl growled in annoyance. "Kankuro, its time you let the boy go."

"What makes you think I can't take you down right here and now!?" Kankuro asked AJ.

"Can you destroy this whole village by yourself? Because I can. Six… five…"AJ answered.

"How do I know you're not all talk?" Kankuro asked.

"Kankuro! Let him go! You don't want us to get in trouble with the village, do you!?" The Sand Ninja girl warned.

"Four…three…"

Kankuro smirked, and he moved the fingers of his free hand to control strings of chakra. A couple small fist-sized glyphs appeared, floating above seemingly random parts of AJ's body while he kept glaring at him. Kankuro's eyes widened. "What!? How did you know where my chakra strings were going!?"

"Because you are way out of your league." AJ answered, letting out his Aura in an attempt to scare the Sand Ninja. "Two…one…"

Kankuro looked hesitant, as if he was having an internal conflict, which he was. "Grr… Fine!" He let go of the boy who dropped to the ground.

"You made the right choice." Shin said before releasing him, giving Kankuro the chance to back up.

"Naruto!" The boy yelled before running over to the blonde. "Why didn't you save me!?"

"I- Um… I sent my sidekick Shin to rescue you!" Naruto lied, trying to look cool.

"Why did you have your sidekick save me instead of you!?" The boy asked.

"Because those guys weren't worth my time!" Naruto answered after a moment.

"Really? Cause your sidekick seems a lot stronger than you." The kid pointed out.

"Now, get lost before I-"

Kankuro cut AJ off by pulling out the thing that was attached to his back. "You think I'm going to let you make a fool of me like that!?"

"Kankuro, no! He's not worth using the Crow on!" The girl yelled, trying to stop Kankuro from getting them in real trouble.

"Kankuro…back off…"

AJ's head snapped over to the tree nearby, suddenly sensing evil. A shorter boy with short, spiky red hair, sea green eyes, and a gourd on his back, stood upside down on one of the branches of the tree. He has black rings around his eyes, the Japanese word for Love was written above his left eye on his forehead. He wears a black full body suit with t shirt like sleeves and an open neck area. He wears a white cloth over his right shoulder the left side of his hip, and a wide leather band system over the left shoulder and right side of his hip.

"You're an embarrassment to our village." The boy said. "Have you forgotten the reason we're here?"

"Eh… I know." Kankuro said weakly, afraid of the boy. "They started the whole thing, really. See, here's what happened-"

"Shut up… or I'll kill you." The upside down boy threatened. He turned his eyes towards AJ when he noticed a glowing symbol appear on AJ's left eye. Nothing happened, and he sensed nothing threatening from the symbol, so he left it alone and looked back to his fellow Sand Ninja.

"Ah, right! I-I'm sorry, Gaara, I was totally out of line." Kankuro stuttered, trying to appease the boy, Gaara.

'Yeah… he's definitely evil… his soul is so… impure…' AJ thought.

Gaara turned and looked at AJ and company. "I'm sorry for any trouble he may have caused." His whole body turned into sand which floated down next to his teammates before the sand turned back into himself. "Let's go, we didn't come here to play games."

"R-Right, sure. I get it." Kankuro stuttered before the three turned and started walking away.

"Hey!" AJ said, raising his voice somewhat. "You never said why you're in this village!"

"Yeah! No ninja can enter another ninja's village without permission! Even if the Land of Fire and Land of Wind are allies!" Sakura added.

"You don't know?" The sand ninja girl asked as her and her team stopped and turned around. "Have you been living under a rock or something? We have permission." She said, holding up a paper with her picture on it and detailing how she has permission to be here. AJ read on it that her name was Temari. "We're here for the Chunin Exams."

"The Chunin Exams? What's that?" Naruto asked, confused as always. "I've never heard of any Chunin Exams, believe it."

"Oh I believe it alright! That you're totally clueless!" Temari said with a smirk.

"He always is." AJ deadpanned, rolling his eyes. 'Strange, there isn't really anything majorly wrong with Kankuro's soul, or Temari's soul…' He thought before the glyph on his eye went away.

The scarf wearing boy that had been saved spoke up to Naruto. "Hey boss, that's the exams that every Genin has to take in order to become full on Chunin."

"Oh! Well why didn't you say so!? I am so there!" Naruto said excitedly.

Satisfied that they would be left alone, the sand ninja turned to walk away.

"Hey! The one with the gourd, who are you!?" AJ demanded.

The red head stopped and turned around. "My name is Gaara of The Desert. I'm curious about you too. Who are you?"

"I'm Shin, if you must know." AJ answered. 'I could destroy him now… but his teammates would get in the way… and I would probably start a war with the Land of Wind… dammit.'

"What clan?" Temari asked.

"Don't have one." AJ answered simply.

"I bet you're dying to know my name!" Naruto yelled proudly.

"I couldn't care less." Gaara said simply before his team turned and left.

AJ growled in annoyance. "Don't trust that one with the gourd, alright Naruto, Sakura?"

"Ummm okay." Sakura said hesitantly. "He _was_ kind of creepy."

"You too, Sasuke. Don't trust him and don't fight him alone." AJ said before starting to walk away.

"Wait, Sasuke's here!? Where!?" Naruto asked, looking around.

"Don't worry about it." AJ said simply.

"Um… Shin?" Sakura said hesitantly.

"What? I have a mission report to turn in." AJ said, annoyed.

"Well… I didn't want to mention it while you were dealing with those guys… but… you've got a lot of blood on you." Sakura pointed out.

AJ looked down at himself and saw quite a bit of mostly dried blood on his body and his clothes, and now that he felt it, on his face as well. "Meh, it's dried up, more or less, and it's not mine, so it doesn't really matter that much." 'Though I guess I should get it out of my hair soon… oh, that's why they seemed so scared of me even though they were hiding it… I was covered in blood…

…that would also explain the looks I was getting from the guards and the civilians on the way here…

…whoops…'

Everyone stared dumbfounded as he treated such a thing so casually and walked away from them. When he was out of sight of them, he created his bow and used it to shoot over to a nearby tree. He landed sideways on a branch, using chakra to stay on it. He turned his head to the right and looked straight at the branch that was there. There were three ninja with a sound note for a symbol on their headbands standing on that branch.

"I get that you guys are ninja…" AJ started before whispering. "But it's not nice to spy on people." He said before using his bow and teleporting away from the stunned ninja.

* * *

He stood up on the roof of one of the taller buildings in the village, looking out towards the building that the Hokage was in, the one where he was supposed to go to in order turn in his mission. He was about to do that, though he took a moment to look down at himself and decide whether he should clean himself up before turning the mission in or not. That was when he felt three distressed emotions outside the village, in the forest. He turned and looked in that direction, but he couldn't see anything from there, so he used his Aura bow to teleport above the forest, and then into the forest.

He landed near three kids no older than seven, two girls and one boy, who were clearly scared. The reason they were scared was the source of a fourth emotion, a man with an animal mask on. He was clearly a member of the Anbu Black Ops, the mask gave it away.

"You kids shouldn't be here." The man said.

"We know! We're lost!" One of the girls said fearfully.

"You need to leave before I take you away from here." The man said.

"Please take us back to the village!" The other girl requested.

"I don't have time, go find your own way home."

"We can't find our own way home!" The boy yelled.

*Smack!* "Respect your superiors! Do not raise your voice at me!" The man yelled after slapping the boy.

"Hey!" AJ yelled angrily. "Back off the kids!"

"This is a restricted area and I am under orders to-"

"Fuck your orders!" AJ cut him off, walking towards him and the kids. "Just take these kids back to the village! Help them, they're lost!"

"I am under direct orders to never leave this area and to stop anyone that comes here… _anyone_." The masked man explained.

'Oh my god, fuck this stupid world!' "Fine! I'll take them home then!" He said angrily before calming down and walking up to the kids. "You really shouldn't go running around in the forest like this. I hope you learned your lesson." The kids looked at him fearfully. 'Right… still covered in blood…' He spoke like you normally would to a child. "Look, I'm one of the _good_ ninja, just go that way and you'll be back in the village in no time." He said, pointing towards the village.

"T-Thank you, mister." The boy said hesitantly.

The kids slowly backed away from him and the Anbu member before running off where AJ had pointed. Shin's Aura suddenly flared up and he spun around and smacked the ninja so hard he cracked his mask. "That's for hitting a defenseless fucking kid you heartless asshole!" He yelled angrily. "Seriously! You're morals should take priority over-" He cut himself off when his symbol appeared on his left eye. "Oh… with a soul like that… you must be part of _Danzo's_ Anbu, not the Hokage's…" He spoke with a disappointed deadpan tone now. "Nevermind… I can see why you're an asshole now."

The Anbu quickly rushed AJ with a kunai, and both of them began dashing around at high speeds, kunai knives clashing every second. The Anbu finally stopped attacking for a second.

'Well, I'm sure getting into a lot of trouble today… One thing after another…' "Look! I only hit you cause you're a moralless asshole like your master! Don't have to take it so personally!" AJ said before the Anbu threw a barrage of shuriken at him. He created a glyph to block the attacks, but the ninja quickly moved behind him while his glyph was up. His Aura flared up even more before the man's knife hit empty air and he was driven into the ground by a punch in the back. The dust cleared and only a wooden stump remained. He spun around to stop the ninja's sneak attack but was slashed across the chest.

"You do not assault an Anbu and get away with it!" The masked man said before performing a few hand signs. "And you do not insult Lord Danzo!" Suddenly a bright flash appeared from his body and blinded AJ for a moment. He couldn't see, but he could still sense where the ninja was, so he just kept a glyph between him and the man until his vision returned. The ninja collided with the glyph quite a few times, trying to break through it.

Eventually his vision cleared, just in time to jump over a lightning bolt that was shot at him. He responded with a few shuriken while he was still in the air, forcing the man to leave the branch he was just on and move to another. AJ jumped at him and punched right through the tree the man was on, but he quickly moved to another and swung around the tree to build up momentum before flying at AJ, who was still in the air.

The Faunus raised his arms to deflect the kick, causing the man to spin in a backwards flip. The man went with it and raised his kunai to try and slash the boy, who blocked the blade with his wrist guards. The man kept spinning, but as he was no longer close enough to slice, his next spin led to him throwing the kunai, forcing AJ to spin in the air to dodge. The boy responded with an Energy blast as they got further apart, and the man dodged it before dashing away and hiding in the brush.

AJ landed and looked right where he was hiding. "Don't bother, I can sense you no matter where you are." He deadpanned. "As much as I would like to just kill you, I would just get in trouble, so can we just stop fighting?" He made a point of following the ninja's every move with his eyes. He had to admit, that Anbu was skilled, as expected of the Anbu. He wasn't making a sound as he moved through the forest. "Look, keep your restricted area, I don't care. I just wanted to get those kids out of here." No response. "Although you obviously could care less about their safety." He leaned his head slightly to dodge the thrown kunai. "Don't pretend that that struck a nerve. I could feel you enjoying what you were doing to those kids."

Another bolt of lightning was shot at him, and he jumped away to dodge it. "Alright, you wanna fight so badly!?" He activated the Lightning Dust in his right wrist guard and started firing bolts of lightning at the ninja, who jumped from tree to tree to dodge. He jumped up into the trees and created massive claws of lighting on his right hand and tried to slash the masked ninja, who once again jumped away. That chase went on for a bit longer, many more trees becoming a victim of claws of lightning. Some of them actually didn't fall over, but most did.

The Anbu kept running and dodging, occasionally attacking with kunai, shuriken, or lightning style Jutsu. Shin moved faster with each attack, losing more and more patience with this man. He tried to run away, deciding this fight was pointless, but the ninja threw more ninja tools at him and forced him to stay.

"Alright! I am absolutely done with this!" AJ yelled angrily, deactivating the Lightning Dust. He jumped down to the forest floor and started building up Aura. The ninja appeared behind him and slashed him across the back, so he surrounded himself with glyphs to give himself enough time. Eventually he built up enough Aura, and with a roar, he let out a massive blast of Aura from his body and created wings made of Aura on his back.

He suddenly appeared in front of the ninja, who was barely able to lean out of the way of a punch that shattered a tree behind him. He jumped away and threw a trio of kunai, which AJ blocked by pulling out his sword and deflecting them before rushing the ninja. He threw his sword at the ninja, who leaned out of the way to dodge, but he didn't move fast enough before he got tackled through about five trees before AJ threw him into the floor.

"I should _not_ have had to go that far with you!" Shin yelled, looking down at the man who was still breathing. "You Anbu sure are trained to be fucking annoying to fight!"

"I…was…one of… the fastest…" The man said weakly.

"Tch! That would sure explain things!" AJ yelled angrily before growling in frustration. "Here, let me fix you so you don't die and I don't get in trouble." His Aura relaxed and stopped flowing from him, and his Aura wings faded away as well.

"No…I will… not…"

"Shut up with your stupid pride and let me fix you." AJ cut him off, annoyed, before creating a glyph below the man and slowly healing his broken bones and internal bleeding. "There. I only healed you enough so you won't die, your Chakra can fix the rest. Now if you don't mind, I have more important things to do." He growled out in annoyance at the waste of his time before he started to walk away, half out of breath from how much Aura he had used.

He looked down at the Dust crystal that he had used, which was now white from the Energy in him neutralizing it. Now that it was neutralized, it reacted to the Aura and Chakra that were flowing through it, causing it to ever so slowly regenerate. He was very thankful that the Dust reacted this way, otherwise he would have ran out of Dust seeing as none grows on this world.

He finally went home, changed clothes and cleaned himself, and then finally delivered his report of his successful mission. He took his money, and finally left, hoping to be left alone for the rest of the day.

Of course, that didn't happen, because as he walked down the halls he soon found himself face to face with a scarred old man with an eyepatch, Danzo, and two Anbu guards, one on either side of him, each one wearing a unique animal mask.

"So, you are the one who attacked one of my men." Danzo said, looking over the Faunus before him.

"I have somewhere else to be." AJ said, not hiding his tone which clearly indicated he didn't like the man, before turning around to walk away. He remembered the last times he had seen this man. His soul was so tainted he barely had any morals at all, and all he wanted was power.

"You misunderstand, boy." Danzo said calmly. "I am not here to call for your punishment, I am here to make you an offer. You have what it takes to be a member of my Anbu… you have that… darkness in you."

Shin looked over his left shoulder, his glowing symbol on his eye showing him the man's soul had not changed. "Let me make this clear, if I ever see your tainted soul again, _I will destroy you without hesitation._ " He growled out.

Danzo was shocked and insulted by this. "Who do you think you-"

"Do not _ever_ speak to me again, _Danzo_." AJ growled, words dripping with venom, before walking away. Feeling that he had pissed off Danzo, he decided to get outside and use his Aura bow to teleport to the other side of the village.

* * *

The next five days went by normally. He took some time to train, since the Hokage said he couldn't go on another mission for a few days. Something about disturbing everyone with his condition when he came back. 'Not my fault they can't handle a bit of dried blood.' What he didn't understand was that it wasn't "a bit" to everyone else.

He had just recently woken up and was walking through the village with Neko on his shoulder, discussing what they were going to do for the day. Suddenly a wild Kakashi appeared in front of him.

"Good morning, Shin." The silver haired man greeted.

"Hi, what do you want?" AJ asked quickly, wanting to get to the point. Neko lightly tapped his cheek with one of his paws for being rude.

"The Chunin Exams are starting today, and I just want you to walk with the kids till they get signed in and get to the classroom they need to get to." Kakashi explained.

"Why do I have to go with them? Why can't you?" Shin whined.

"Thanks for doing this for me." Kakashi thanked and waved before going up in a puff of smoke.

AJ was actually too annoyed to bother chasing him down. "Fuck you, Kakashi. Fuck you." He turned and started walking towards his teammates' emotions. It was a trio of predictable emotions, it wasn't hard to find them.

After jumping along rooftops for a bit he landed next to them and walked with them. Sakura kept fawning over Sasuke, who wouldn't speak much, and Naruto was a pain, as usual. Eventually they had arrived at the school, and that was when Shin decided 'fuck this' and left while their backs were turned. He felt that if he stuck around, Kakashi would find out that he ditched his job, so he teleported out of the village and into the forest that surrounds it.

He ran through the trees for awhile until he was sure Kakashi wouldn't track him, and then kept running for good measure. All he needed to do was stay far enough away that even when Kakashi eventually tracked him down, the kids would already have begun the exams, and it would be too late to make him have to deal with them for even another two seconds.

Besides, he was pretty sure that if he went into that school, he was going to run into Lee.

He wanted to punch something just thinking about having to deal with him, but breaking a tree would just be an indication that he was here, and he didn't want to be found for as long as he could help it.

"Don't you think you're being a bit overdramatic?" Neko asked, appearing next to him and jumping along the branches with him.

"Nope, not at all." AJ answered.

He kept running through the forest just to do it at this point, he didn't even care where he went. At one point he noticed a small structure amidst the trees. It was a dark green that blended in well in the shade of the leaves. It was really small, being just above his height and being about as wide and long as he was tall. He was tall and all, but that really didn't give him much space as he walked into the structure.

Suddenly the structure sealed him in, and all was dark for a moment.

"I don't exactly have the ability to do this whenever I want to, so you better listen to what I have to say." A female voice spoke up, one he knew well enough.

Suddenly the swirling patterns carved into the walls lit up with a light green glow and he was able to see again. He was still totally alone in the small confined space, but he could feel her presence. The Angel of Emotion, the one that had put him on Remnant and started all this.

"Every moment of your existence is illegal. We angels are not allowed to have warriors. You need to understand that if you use too much power and we get caught because of it, all of your power won't be able to save you from being destroyed." Muriel said.

'We, huh?' "Great, turn yourselves in so I can be destroyed. I don't care anymore." Shin said.

"Why don't you get over yourself!? This is about more than just you!" Muriel yelled, annoyed with this mortal's attitude.

That set him off. "I LOST EVERYTHING! I HAVE A RIGHT TO BE IN PAIN! So why don't you just shut up you stupid BITCH!" He screamed, Aura exploding out of him and his eyes turning red. "You obviously don't understand the pain I'm in and you don't care so just stop talking to me!"

"You don't get to tune me out!" Muriel pointed out.

He finally had something he could let out all his built up emotion on and screamed at the top of this lungs, tears flowing as he lost control for a moment. "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU FOR ALL THE PAIN YOU'VE CAUSED ME! I lost the one I loved because of you!"

"You wouldn't have had a love to lose if it weren't for me!" Muriel pointed out.

"I would prefer that! I want to just go back to my world and forget everything! I don't want this power anymore! I hate it! It reminds me of everything and everyone that I've lost forever!" He yelled.

"You know what? I'm not letting you out yet. You are going to sit here until you realize how selfish you are." Muriel decided, thoroughly frustrated with Shin.

He could actually hear the red wolf in his head growl in anger when she said that. "I'm not selfish! I always just tried to make everyone else happy at the cost of my own happiness! I've been through so much shit that I think I deserve to think about myself for once!" He was met with no response, which led to him swinging at the air in anger before reluctantly sitting down. He sat there for a moment before his nails dug into his head and his eyes shut tight in anger.

'I'm selfish!? I'm _selfish!?_ '

"I have to agree with you here." Neko commented. "You have suffered enough, being called selfish like that is just ridiculous. But… could you maybe think about this a bit? I mean you, me, we, are obviously very important if we have all this power. What are we meant to do with it all? I feel like we have something important that we're supposed to do."

The young man reluctantly admitted, in his head, that Neko had a point. 'But if we have something important to do, then the stupid angel should tell us what it is.'

A few moments passed before the angel spoke up again. "Ah, it seems someone is here to get you. I have no choice but to release you now."

"Thank fuck! Finally!" He exclaimed, standing up.

"You better heed my warning. Do not overuse your power." The angel warned.

"I will do whatever the fuck I want! If it brings out my end quicker, even better." AJ responded before the whole structure he was in vanished, exposing him to the open air. He turned and saw Kakashi run up to him.

"Shin! I finally found you!" Kakashi said, sounding… relieved?

"Heeeeyyyy Kakashi… you're not gonna punish me for ditching the brats, right?" Shin asked hopefully.

"I don't care about that! I'm just glad you're alive!" Kakashi answered. "The Hokage and I were worried about you! He thought Danzo had taken you out for threatening him! We-"

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait, why did you think that?" Shin asked, confused.

"You have been gone for six days!" Kakashi answered like it was obvious.

…

"...Eh!?" AJ so eloquently asked.

* * *

 **Cliché cliffhanger it is!**

 **Pretty sure these next few chapters are gonna be all those fight scenes in the Chunin Exams. Or maybe it won't take as many words to write them as I think, we'll see.**

 **I did have a bunch more to say but I think I'm just gonna shut my stupid mouth and end this AN now. XD**

 **Follow, fav, review (be gentle), the usual.**

 **Hope you all have a great week!**


	6. A New Friend, A New Ability

**Back by unpopular demand…**

 **Readers: *Turns head dramatically* It's you…**

 **Me: *Maniacal smile* IT'S MEEEEEE!**

 **(Get the reference? No? Of course you don't…)**

 **Sorry for taking more than two weeks guys (understatement of the century), I got sick, really sick. Like, shaking-uncontrollably-even-though-I-wasn't-cold sick. It wasn't fun. Also, once I got over that, the first semester of school was coming to end for me so I set away some free time to make up work instead… I failed to do much, but still. Then I got new video games for Christmas… and really writing this particular fic has become so much more tedious than I thought it would be. I'm trying hard to write this though, for those of you that actually want to know what happens next.**

 **GOOD NEWS FOR THE FANFIC! I was able to skip over a bunch of the canon fights so I don't have to waste a whole chapter+ on all of them! I was going to come back, after all this time, with a really boring chapter filled with unimportant fights… Even if you don't find this chapter that great, I assure you, it was going to be a lot worse.**

 **Enjoy!**

 **)Insert usual disclaimer here(**

* * *

Tortured Soul Ch.6

* * *

 _As my fingers trace the scar of this frozen bond_

AJ is shown walking along the edge of a forest at night, he doesn't have his cloak and touches two scars running down the left side of his face. He looks distant and lonely as he slowly walks along the path and stares at the ground in thought.

 _Deep within the crevice tearing my broken heart_

He shuts his eyes tight as tears fall out of them and he sobs quietly.

 _My body is wondering on…_

 _All my thoughts evaporate into shapeless dark_

He opens his eyes and a few tears continue to fall but now he looks very angry as he grits his teeth and glares up at the camera.

 _Faded like the past decays in a memory_

His eyes turn red and his teeth grow sharp. He turns back to normal as he suddenly snaps his head in the direction of the forest and catches a glimpse of someone that looked like Blake.

 _Now I search for an illusion_

He runs frantically through the forest looking in every direction for her and eventually comes to a small clearing and falls to his knees and cries again. He keeps his mouth shut tight gritting his teeth together, he also keeps his eyes shut tight but once again tears get through.

 _I will try to wield power over destiny…_

 _In the world that shined for me_

White Aura blasted out of him and he stood up and rushed further into the forest still frantically searching.

 _My memories live on_

He thought about teams RWBY and JNPR and the things they had done together.

 _Forgotten dreams call out_

He stopped for a moment and looked around.

 _To stars that I once wished upon_

He smiled as he looked up at the stars through a hole in the canopy of trees, before rushing out again.

 _Now I see the scenery_

He continued to run but now tears ran down his face as he ran.

 _Distilled inside my mind_

 _That never ending night_

Scene of him crying in his sleep.

 _And days stretch forever_

Scene of him walking around the village looking distant.

 _Though we're far apart, you are still in my heart_

He thought about Blake again and ran faster.

 _And no mere separation_

He let out another burst of Aura and went into his second stage where his Aura took the form of see though wings behind him.

 _Will stop this light from reaching you_

Blake was visited by a white light in her dream back on Remnant.

 _A miracle_

AJ jumped out into another clearing and looked at the camera. He started building up Aura into his right hand, so much it was a light show of bright white mist so bright it actually is blinding.

 _Will finally come true_

He charged at the viewer with his lightshow of a punch.

Change scene and camera looks at a Naruto in nine tails mode covered in red chakra.

Camera turns to the Sasuke in his second stage curse mark.

Camera turns again to see AJ glaring at the two before charging at them as we hit the static part of the song they charge at each other and the screen goes black.

Tortured Soul, A multiverse Fanfiction

* * *

"I… was gone for six days?" Shin asked, completely shocked and confused. 'Oh, and its night right now. How did I not notice that?'

Kakashi hesitated when he realized how confused the young man was. "Yes, you were… What made you not notice the passage of time?"

"Um… I uh… kind of walked into a small building that was right where I'm standing just a second ago." Shin answered hesitantly. "It's gone now, obviously. But, I heard the voice of the angel that sent me here while I was inside it. I guess she kept me in there longer than I thought, wonder why. Anyway, she warned me about overusing my power, but I don't care what she says."

"Why did she warn you? Are you really in danger?" Kakashi asked curiously.

"I guess something will find me if I use too much of my power." The Faunus answered. "I imagine there is something out there that can detect my power and if it did, it would kill the angel that sent me here and then kill me as well."

"Something that can kill an angel!?" Kakashi asked, surprised.

"Yeah she doesn't ever tell me much or explain things very well." Shin said, annoyed. "She clearly prefers keeping me in the dark and she's probably the reason I'm here so I really don't care what she does as long as she leaves me the fuck alone."

"And you don't care if you're found and killed either, huh?" Kakashi asked.

"Nope." Shin answered simply.

"You know, our world could really use someone as powerful as you. Our village needs strong ninja like you." Kakashi pointed out hopefully.

"I don't care what happens to this world. Once I'm not in it, it won't matter to me."

"I think I know what the old you was like, and he would have cared." Kakashi said, making AJ growl and look away from him. "He would feel guilty about leaving a world of people behind, people that cared about him."

Shin spun around in anger and faced him. "No one here cares about me, first of all! And second of all, the old me is dead! Why do you think I hate being called AJ!? It's because that's the old me, and the old me is dead!"

"He's not dead, I still see him show up from time to time, though you seem to pretend not to notice." Kakashi pointed out. "And there _are_ people here that care about you. The Hokage cares about you. I care about you."

"Shut up!" Shin yelled, shooting an Energy blast at Kakashi's face. The masked ninja simply leaned out of the way. "Why do you care!? You have no reason to care about me!"

"Because I can't stand to see you suffer like this." Kakashi answered. "You can sense that I'm telling the truth, can't you? I can see that you are lost, and hurt. You suffer so much all the time, and I want to help you recover."

"I don't want your help, I want her BACK!" Shin shouted angrily. A tear leaked out one of his eyes and he wiped it away. "But that's not gonna happen, so just leave me to suffer! Stop trying to help me! You can't help me, so just let me die!"

Kakashi stayed quiet for a moment, letting the boy calm down and slow his breathing. "The reason you haven't killed yourself yet is because you don't want to die."

"No, it isn't. I do want to die." Shin growled out. "I'm just too weak to do it."

"You still think you can get back to her." Kakashi continued calmly.

"No I don't! Life isn't a fairy tale!" Shin yelled.

"How can you say that after everything you've seen and everything you've been through?" Neko asked, confused.

"Just because all of this would be considered fantasy by Earth's standards, doesn't mean that I'm living a fairy tale!" Shin answered. "We live in a multiverse, that's a fact, not some silly story. I got my powers from the angels that rule over that multiverse, that's a fact. The things people are capable of on Remnant, on this Earth, they are all real things. To these worlds, nothing they do is like a fairy tale, it's just life. It may be by comparison to Earth, but that doesn't make it a fairy tale." Neko hated it, but he had a point, and he couldn't come up with a counter for it.

"People here care for you, rather you accept it or not." Kakashi started. "Those people care for you for reasons you simply can't, or won't, understand, but regardless of the reason, they just want to help you." AJ growled in response. "Those people who care for you _will not_ let you die, and the ones that really care will never stop trying to help you, no matter how much you push them away." He finished before turning to walk away. "Now that I've found you, we should get back to the village. Another person that cares for you will want to know that you're safe." He said in an unusually soft tone.

That caring-sounding tone made Shin feel sad, and made him hesitate instead of arguing more. Noticing that Kakashi was walking away, he quickly caught up with the masked ninja, and they remained silent the whole way back.

Kakashi opened the door and motioned for Shin to step in, which he begrudgingly did. When he walked in he saw the Hokage look up at him from his desk, smile, and get up to walk over to him.

"Ah! AJ! I'm glad to see that you're unharmed." The Hokage said happily before hugging the boy.

"Can you not?" Shin asked simply.

The Third laughed lightly. "I'm afraid not."

"Why do you care?" Shin whined before he was released.

"Because you are a member of this village, and that makes you a part of my family." The Hokage answered as he went to sit back down at his desk. Shin resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"So would either of you like to tell me what happened?" The Hokage asked.

"Well… I met the voice of the angel that sent me here and apparently she kept me where I was longer than I thought. I was only in there for a minute or two at most, and yet it's been days somehow. I don't get why she kept me in there though." Shin answered.

"Well she kept you in there to warn you not to abuse your power, but she also kept you away longer than necessary, so maybe there was something here that could have killed you?" Kakashi wondered. "Could the angel have known about…"

"About what?" Shin asked.

"An S-Class criminal known as Orochimaru has infiltrated the village." The Hokage answered.

Shin's eyes widened slightly in surprise. "Oh."

"I had an encounter with him, and I also tried and failed to capture one of his spies. Both happened today." Kakashi said. "We don't know why, but he seems to be after Sasuke."

"Sasuke?" Shin asked, surprised.

"He put a curse mark on him." Kakashi said. "I sealed it, but the seal may one day break, and it could put him and the entire village in danger."

"You can sense evil, can you not?" The Hokage asked.

Shin nodded. "Yes."

"Well if you sense evil from Sasuke, be wary. Just know that it isn't him, so try not to kill him if the curse mark should break out." Lord Third requested.

"Wonderful." Shin said sarcastically. "Naruto has a demon in him and Sasuke might turn evil, just what I needed. Did something happen to Sakura that I should know about?" He asked, turning to Kakashi.

"Well, she cut her hair." Kakashi answered casually.

"So nothing important then?" Shin asked.

"You may notice that they've all grown up a bit." Kakashi answered.

"Oh, Naruto didn't die in the exams then?" Shin asked, a bit surprised.

"No, in fact he and Sakura have improved greatly." Kakashi pointed out.

Neko appeared on Shin's shoulder. "Life or death situations do tend to change you." Commented the cat.

"They tend to kill you." Shin pointed out, looking at the green-gold eyed cat.

"Good point." Neko conceded.

"Well, at least we might know why that angel kept you away for so long. Now you have been warned about Orochimaru and will know to be more cautious." Kakashi said.

"Yes, the timing does make sense." The Hokage noted. "How are you feeling after being trapped for so long? Are you hungry or tired?"

Shin looked out the window at the lights of the city. "Well, I don't really feel much right now, though I don't usually feel much of anything anyway… I'll just go to bed now, to be safe." He walked out after saying that and began walking through the city, towards his apartment. He found some peace in walking through the streets at night. No cars existed in this world as far as he knew, so there was little noise.

"Was the hug really such a good idea?" Kakashi asked once the boy was out of hearing range.

"I thought I would try a different approach to getting through to him. Sometimes all someone needs is a hug." Lord Third answered.

"I think we both know he needs more than a hug." Kakashi commented.

"He needs to go home, but no known Jutsu or magical artifact can send him back. It wasn't a Jutsu that sent him here to begin with, there are no Ninjutsu or anything like it where he came from." The Hokage noted.

"He doesn't even know how he got here." Kakashi pointed out. "Do you even want him to go back?"

"Every moment I can I'm trying to get him to warm up to us, to our world. He needs people he can trust, people he can open up to." The Third Hokage started. "I want him to go home, but if we can't help him get home I want him to… to at least find our world livable. I've seen hints of The Will of Fire in him, he can be a good person, but that good person is buried under so much pain. I just keep trying, hoping someday we will either find a way to get him back, or that he'll finally lower his walls and let us in, let us help him. Sometimes I'm just not sure the old him will ever come back as long as he's here."

AJ walked into his apartment and closed the door. He stopped to really think about how he felt and decided he really wasn't hungry and was just going to go to bed.

"Why do they care?" He asked himself as he set his gear down as he approached his bed. "Seriously! Why the fuck do they care!?" He shouted before collapsing on his bed. He soon curled up into a ball and talked much quieter. "Why do they care?... They have no reason to care… I'm not worth caring about… I don't deserve to be cared about…" Neko came out and wiped his tears away before curling up with him.

* * *

"Hey, AJ? Can you get up?" Neko asked.

Shin opened his eyes and saw he was in a familiar circular clearing. "Yeah, sure." He answered hesitantly and stood up before looking down at the cat. "So, why'd you bring me here again?"

Neko suddenly looked hesitant. "Um… well… I wanted you to meet someone…"

"Meet someone? Who?" Shin asked, confused. "The only ones I see here besides you and me are the two wolves." He said, pointing towards the blood red wolf and the white wolf lying nearby. "I hope you two have been behaving in here."

"Of course." The white wolf said with a voice as beautiful and soft as her fur.

The red wolf gave an annoyed huff and looked away from him.

"Still your usual selves I see." Shin deadpanned after the red wolf's reaction.

"Hey!"

Shin's eyes widened before he looked down.

"How's it goin?"

At his feet was another cat. This one had light blue fur and light blue eyes.

There was a moment of silence where the two just stared at each other.

"Neko, who the fuck is this and what are they doing here?" Shin asked, annoyed.

"That's… um… well you see…"

"Well Neko here was created from an intelligence in your Aura, or something, while I'm from the intelligence in your chakra!" The blue cat answered, cutting Neko off. "And before you give me an uncreative name, I want to be called Spirit!"

Shin would have taken offence to that but instead paused for a moment as he realized something. "The thing that came from my chakra wants to be called an English name? Alright… fine. Spirit, how long have you been here? I never had to split you from my chakra to make you into a cat like I did with Neko and my Aura."

"I've been here since you gained chakra, and the intelligence, whatever it is, made me into a cat on its own." Spirit answered. "It's nice to finally meet you now that Neko allowed it."

AJ: *Squints at Neko*

Neko: *Shrinks under gaze* *Laughs awkwardly* "I… was waiting until I understood him more before having you meet him. I kept him from messing with anything, I promise."

"Why not just let me know about him from the beginning?" Shin asked, slightly angry.

"That really was not the time to have you deal with him." Neko answered hesitantly. "It's been long enough and Spirit was getting impatient, so I figured I would have you meet him now. Sorry."

Shin stopped being angry when he realized something. "Does that mean you and Neko could… swap places or something? Would I have blue eyes then instead of green ones with gold flecks?" He asked Spirit.

"Hey, Neko knows about the place far better than I would, ask him! At least he's good for something." Spirit finished, grinning at Neko.

"Be quiet, you." Neko said, annoyed.

"Behave." Shin ordered. "I have one pair of animals fighting in my head already." He briefly looked at the wolves. "I don't need another pair."

"So, are we good?" Neko asked hopefully.

"Of course." Shin answered. "I have some things to look forward to when I wake up, for once. If this meeting is over, I'll be going." He then walked over and cuddled with the white wolf, whose soft fur led him to fall right asleep.

Once he woke up for real he set out for the training grounds to see what he and Spirit could do.

"Alright, so, how are we going to do this?" Shin asked the cat on his shoulder.

"Well, the way it works in your mind is I have this kind of throne that I sit on." Neko started. "I don't need to sit on the throne all the time for you to be a Faunus, I just need to sit on it during combat. The throne basically takes my power and gives it to you. It's what gives you the full power of your Aura, at least the full power that you can use, so I guess it isn't really full at all."

"Why a throne?" Shin asked.

"I'm not sure. I guess it's a position of power for me to transfer power? That's one way to see the connection." Neko answered, slightly confused. "Now, Spirit has never sat on the throne before, so I have no idea if this is going to work."

"Well, let's find out." Shin requested.

Neko nodded before disappearing into his head. Shin then braced and waited for something to happen. All that happened after a few silent moments was his cat ears and tail disappeared. Before he could comment he suddenly stumbled forward as he felt a weird… shift in his body. He soon righted himself and his eye color had changed from green-grey to light blue. He had also regained his cat ears and tail, but they were now colored light blue as well.

"Um…I feel kind of weird." Shin commented.

There was a bright blue flash as Spirit appeared on his shoulder with a grin on his face. "You think _you_ feel weird!? I've never used the throne before! I've never been out of your mind before! This is so cool!" Spirit began running around the training grounds, shouting with joy.

"Spirit, can we focus?" Shin asked, a bit annoyed.

"Right, sorry!" Spirit ran back over to him.

"Can Neko come out while you're out as well?" Shin asked. A moment of silence passed and Neko didn't appear.

"Hmm, let me find out." Spirit said before disappearing. A few moments passed before he appeared on the ground again. "Alright, so apparently Neko is stuck in there. He can't get out unless I let him sit on the throne for a moment, but then I wouldn't be able to get out here. Like all things, Neko is going to have to try a lot of different things until he figures out a way around it, if there is one."

"Why can't you both just do it!?" Shin asked, annoyed with whatever was screwing him over.

"He tried when I went back in, and he got blown away! He's probably gonna try and mess with the throne and find a way around that as well. Forget about him though, you got me now! Let's get to work!" Spirit said excitedly before disappearing into his mind, giving him the blue eyes and cat parts back.

"Alright, well if your power is my chakra, then let's work on Ninjutsu." Shin said before performing handsigns. He couldn't help but notice his chakra was flowing easier, and there seemed to be more of it flowing. "Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!" He shouldn't have been surprised when he breathed a _much_ larger than normal fireball, but he was.

"Woah!" *Realizes the forest is on fire* "Shit! Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" A massive serpent of water with a head shaped much like a dragon's appeared behind him and barreled into the portion of forest that was on fire. A pulse of Aura cleared away the smoke and dust, allowing him to see that he had torn apart all the trees that were on fire. His Aura was no longer as easy to use as he was used to.

Shin sweatdropped. "Well… they can extend the training grounds now!" He said, regaining his composure.

"Maybe you could learn a calmer water style Jutsu?" Spirit suggested.

"Nah, I'm not here to put out fires." Shin countered. "Hey, can you get Neko out here again?"

Spirit let out a sigh of resigned annoyance. "Fine." He then disappeared and AJ waited for a few minutes before he felt a shift inside him and his eyes changed to green with gold flecks while his tail and cat ears changed back to the same brown as his hair. After that, Neko came back out, making him once again lose those Faunus features and making his eyes turn back to a greyish green.

"Sorry, the fool didn't want to let me back out. I think he's enjoying the throne too much." Neko explained as he stood on a tree stump next to the boy.

"So, if I'm currently restricted to expert use of Aura _or_ Chakra, not both, then how come focusing and thinking about my symbol allows me to mix Aura and Chakra?" Shin asked.

"Yeah that caught us off guard when you did that. The ability to use only the 'full' potential of one or the other at a time seems to be some sort of limit that you have. I can't tell if it's a physical limit, a mental one, or a limit of your soul. The throne… I guess you could say it represents that limit and allows us to switch which one you are more proficient with at any moment. I'm starting to think it might be a mental limit since focusing allows you to sort of tap into the other power. When you focused back then, some of Spirit's power started leaking from him and going into the throne, and from the throne, it became available to you. I-" Neko suddenly cut himself off. "I suddenly have the feeling that Spirit wants to talk to me. Hang on." He said before disappearing.

Shin was caught a bit off guard when he felt the shift again before Spirit came back out.

"HAHA! SUCCESS!" Spirit shouted when he got out. "I managed to trick Neko into getting off the throne and now _I'm here!_ "

"…I can see that." Shin said hesitantly.

"Alright, so I got tired of watching Neko talk and wanted to jump back in, so that's why I tricked him and why I'm here now." Spirit started. "I just want to say that my chakra power blended with Neko's Aura power _beautifully_. My power got much stronger when it blended with his, and I imagine it works the other way around as well! So that got me thinking: Why do our powers blend so well? Why does Aura make chakra stronger, and chakra probably make Aura stronger? Well, I asked Neko that one day, and he went ahead and tried to figure that out. He tested things and looked around in you, like he always does, and it seems that your Aura and Chakra are both part of your soul!

It's either one of two things, he said. Either Aura is the base of your soul, trying to protect you, and the chakra is the energy that your soul gives off, protecting you by being a weapon. Or, the chakra and Aura are both parts of your soul, and your soul uses them to protect you with a shield, Aura, and a sword, Chakra. Either way, it's still your soul protecting you with offense and defense, we just aren't sure how Aura and Chakra are physically different, yet.

The one thing we both understand is that your soul is protecting you with these powers. In fact… it seems very protective of you. I guess that makes sense. But, that leads me to my theory: Is your soul actually smart enough to think about your emotional and mental wellbeing, not just your physical wellbeing? If so, then it would explain why we were created!"

"How so?" Shin asked, actually curious about this.

"We're here to be friends! To have someone to talk to so you are never truly alone! I'm saying that I don't think there is some sort of intelligence in your chakra and your Aura that became us! I think your soul allowed Neko to be created and then intentionally created me!" Spirit explained before suddenly looking afraid. "Oh… I suddenly have a feeling that Neko really wants to talk to me right now… I guess I'm gonna have to face him sooner or later…" He said, a bit depressed, then disappeared.

Another shift later, and Neko reappeared. "*Sigh* Ignore him. His theory is ridiculous."

"Whatever you say." Shin said, not particularly caring. "If you don't mind, I would like to see my full potential with my chakra, so let him back on the throne."

"Glad you've found something to keep you occupied once again. Just try not to destroy the training grounds." Neko said before disappearing into his head. He felt another shift and he prepared to try more Jutsu. He intended to test the limits of his chakra and what he could do with it.

"No promises."

* * *

A few days passed before Naruto found him.

"Hey! Shin!"

"*Groan* What, Naruto? I'm busy." Shin said, annoyed, as he looked over his shoulder.

"What the heck have you been doing here!?" Naruto asked as he looked at the destruction around them.

"Training." Shin answered as if the destruction he had caused was normal, which it was, for him.

Naruto sweatdropped but soon remembered what he came here for. "Oh! I wanted to see you try something!"

Shin glared at him. "You have five minutes."

"Alright alright, don't be so grumpy." Naruto commented as he looked around. "Aha! This pool of water is perfect!" He shouted with a grin as he ran over to one of the smaller craters in the area, this one being filled with water. "Alright, you remember when Kakashi taught us how to climb trees with our chakra? Well I've been training since I got done with the second part of the Chunin Exams, and I've learned how to use my chakra to walk on water!" Naruto built chakra into his feet before walking onto the water and cheering. "Woohooo! See!? I want to see you try to do this! It was really hard at first! Oh I can't wait to see you fail!"

Shin gave him an annoyed look as he decided this was a waste of time, but then he decided to just get it over with. He built chakra into his feet and went to take a step onto the water. He then took a few more steps and was effortlessly standing on the water. He turned and glared at Naruto. 'What the fuck is he talking about!? This is easy!' "Thanks for wasting my time!" He yelled before turning and walking away.

Naruto just stood there in shock, so much shock that he lost focus and fell in the water. He soon climbed out of the pool of water and looked at Shin in confusion. 'How did he do that so well on his first try!? And when did his eyes and his cat parts turn blue?' He knew that talking to Shin would likely get him killed, so he simply left and went back to find the Pervy Sage that was training him.

* * *

A month after Shin had begun his training with Spirit, he felt he was really starting to get the hang of his chakra in this state. He had even made some progress on combining his Aura and Chakra together. Getting to actually have an understanding of his chakra through Spirit definitely helped with that. Also his Aura was still helping him advance quickly with the new ability. It may have all but stopped increasing the speed of his training with all his old tricks, but as long as it still helps with new abilities, he won't complain too much.

He could feel two emotions heading his way, and eventually he realized they weren't just heading his way, they were coming here just for him. He stopped his training for the moment and turned around to see Sasuke and Kakashi come out from the trees. Both of them stopped and looked around at the many large craters everywhere, as well as the signs of many different elements being used here.

"Did… did you do this? Is this what happens when you don't hold back?" Sasuke asked, a bit shocked.

"More or less." Shin answered simply.

"What's with the new color?" Kakashi asked.

"That would be because of me!" Spirit said as he appeared on Shin's shoulder with a happy-go-lucky grin that AJ had come to associate with this particular feline.

Sasuke's eyes widened slightly. "This one can talk?"

"Oh Neko can talk as well, he and Shin just decided not to tell you!" Spirit explained.

"Is there a reason for that?" Sasuke asked.

"You didn't need to know." Shin answered with a shrug.

"Whatever." Sasuke responded.

"You look different too, Sasuke." Shin noted. "Darker colored clothes, slightly different style, and your hair is even longer than before. Why?"

"We decided he needed a change of style during our training." Kakashi answered. "Come on with us, Shin. We're heading to the arena so Sasuke can have his match in the Chunin Exams."

Understanding that that was an order and not an invitation, Shin rolled his eyes in annoyance before following them. "Fine." He said hesitantly. "You do realize that the Chunin Exams have been going on for awhile today, right?"

"I'm… sure we're not too late." Kakashi said, slightly worried.

The arena was circular and surrounded by very tall walls. The inside of the arena was pretty simple. It was flat, nothing more than grass and dirt on the ground. There were some trees on the end opposite of the stands though, trees which had large gashes in them. The stands were split into three portions all beside each other, with the Hokage and the Hidden Sand Village's Kazekage sitting in a small area above the center portion of the stands.

As Kakashi and Sasuke performed their dramatic entrance in the center of the arena, Shin, standing next to them, looked at the general area. 'Well, this is going to be boring to watch. I can't expect it be very great seeing as they don't have Remnant's technology, but still, this is all they could come up with? It's also just going to be one on one matches… lame. I also don't like how many suspicious emotions I'm sensing in the stands… Can't people just behave during tournaments?' He looked at the people near him and saw Naruto, some kid with a mohawk, and a leaf ninja with either a reed or a large toothpick in his mouth.

"…was betting you wouldn't come here, cause sooner or later you'd have to face me!" Shin caught Naruto say to Sasuke.

"So what about you? Did you win?" Sasuke asked with a bit of a smirk.

"You know it!" Naruto answered cockily.

"Well don't get too full of yourself. You're still a loser." Sasuke said, his smirk growing a bit.

"Yeah, seriously. Whoever you fought must have been terrible!" Shin commented.

Naruto growled at him. "Hey! I'll have you know that that Neji guy was really tough! Sure he was no match for me, but still! He wasn't some weakling or anything!"

"Yes but compared to you, everyone is really tough." Shin countered with a bit of a smirk as he felt Naruto get even angrier with him.

"Actually, Neji was the greatest rookie to become a Genin in the Leaf Village last year, so he was hardly some amateur." The kid with the mohawk commented.

"If you say so. Who are you, by the way?" Shin asked.

"Oh ignore him, Shin, he's just the laziest ninja ever, Shikamaru!" Naruto answered, looking annoyed with Shikamaru for some reason. Shikamaru just let out a sigh of annoyance, like he had had this argument with Naruto already.

Kakashi rubbed the back of his head as he looked at the man with the bandana on and the reed in his mouth. "Sorry if we kept you waiting, but... um… how late are we?" He asked hesitantly before letting out a worried chuckle. "I mean, it's not like Sasuke's… well, disqualified or anything… right?"

The man looked down and smirked in amusement. "Like master like pupil, even down to your lousy sense of time."

"Well it's gonna be pretty awkward if he's been disqualified after all your training and your dramatic entrance." Shin commented.

"Well? What about it?" Kakashi asked, growing more worried.

"You know you were so late, that we extended the deadline for you, twice in fact. And it's lucky for you we did, because you _just_ made it. No he's not disqualified."

Kakashi let out a sigh of relief as he chuckled. "Oh! That's a relief! You had me worried there for a minute. So we're okay." Kakashi noticed that Naruto and Sasuke were looking up into a viewing area inside the wall on the side with the viewing audience. He and Shin both looked up there and saw the three sand ninja were up there, specifically the one with the gourd. Shin had an uneasy feeling just looking at him. "Uneasy" was a bit of an understatement, he had to put effort into ignoring the want to _kill_ that kid.

"Hey Sasuke!" Naruto yelled, getting the boy's attention. "Don't lose to this guy, cause I want to fight you myself!

"Got it." Sasuke responded.

The crowd erupted with cheering as the fight they were looking forward to was finally about to begin.

"Alright, Gaara! Come down here!" The bandana man ordered.

"Come on, Naruto. They don't need us here." Shikamaru said before starting to walk away. He looked back and noticed Naruto was hesitating and looking at Sasuke. "Let's go. And I'm gonna take the stairs this time if you don't mind."

"Oh come on! Are you still upset that I gave you a little push!? You ought to be grateful!" Naruto responded before following him.

"Well, so much for avoiding a fight with this guy." Shin commented, looking towards Sasuke. "Good luck." He said before vanishing. A minute passes. 'Huh. Two people just died in there. Felt like… they were trying to… threaten Gaara? Idiots.'

"Okay. Here we are at last." The reed/toothpick holding proctor spoke. "Alright now the rules for this match are the same as in the preliminaries. The match continues until one of you dies, or admits defeat."

'OH! WELL THAT'S NOT LIKE REMNANT'S TOURNAMENT AT ALL!' Shin thought, surprised.

"However, I can stop the match, but that is solely my decision." The proctor added.

Sasuke stared down his opponent, while Gaara stared at his with a maniacal smile and wide eyes.

"Begin!" The proctor shouted.

A moment passed silently before sand started floating out of the gourd on Gaara's back. Sasuke wisely jumped back.

Gaara suddenly froze before gripping the right side of his face and groaning in pain. "Please… I beg you… don't get so mad at me…" Suddenly he smiled and started chuckling quietly. "Mother… really I, I know… I made you taste such awful blood. I'm so sorry. But this time… I'm sure, that it will taste so very good…" Suddenly he was assaulted by more pain and the sand that was floating around him fell to the ground.

It was only then that Shin realized that Gaara was actually calming down now. It was also only then that he realized he was breathing heavily, and then he looked at his right hand and saw he had made it into a fist so tight that his claws were digging into his skin and making him bleed. He fixed it with his Aura and kept up his Aura from then on.

Gaara, now calm, looked at Sasuke with a blank expression as the sand started to rise around him again. "Come on."

Sasuke quickly pulled two shuriken out from his tool case on his right thigh and threw them at Gaara. The sand rose up in front of him and caught the shuriken before the sand turned into a clone of himself. Sasuke started to rush him before the sand clone blasted a large volume of sand at him, forcing him to jump up to dodge it. The sand clone threw the two shuriken back at Sasuke, who quickly threw more shuriken to cancel out the attack.

He landed in front of the clone and kicked it across the chest, tearing away some of the sand. He then landed in a handstand and spun around before swinging his arm into the clone's neck. His arm was soon trapped in the clone as the sand came back, so he used his other arm to punch the clone in the face and destroy it. He charged Gaara, now that there was nothing between them. That didn't last long though as more sand shot up to block his punch, but Sasuke simply smirked before disappearing.

Shin's eyes widened. 'Whoa! He's so much closer to my full speed now! How did he get that fast in a month!?'

Sasuke appeared behind Gaara, who was barely able to turn his head before he took a fist to the cheek, knocking him flat.

"So that's your sand armor, huh?" Sasuke noted as Gaara's skin cracked. "Come on!" He taunted. "If you won't do it, then I will!" He yelled before rushing him at speeds most people couldn't hope to follow. Judging by the look of shock on Gaara's face, not even he could follow it. The sand launched out to attack Sasuke, but he simply dashed behind Gaara. Gaara turned around and his sand did as well, but Sasuke weaved between the tendrils of sand and sent Gaara flying with a kick. "What's the matter, Gaara? Is that all you've got?" He asked as Gaara got back up, before taking a stance Shin knew well. "I'm going to tear off all your armor!

'Hey! That's Lee's stance!' Shin mentally noted. 'Oh right! Sasuke has the Sharingan now! He must have fought Lee at some point!'

Sasuke rushed Gaara again and began running circles around him, going so fast that all you could see was a circle of dust being kicked up around the sand ninja. Gaara's sand created a floating ring around him, but Sasuke easily dashed under it and spin-kicked Gaara in the chest. He then grabbed Gaara before he could be sent flying by the hit and brought his knee up to Gaara's chest, hard, The sand around them finally started to react, so Sasuke threw Gaara away from him, forcing the sand to follow instead of attack.

Both of them paused as they were both breathing heavily, though Sasuke was standing tall while Gaara was on his hands and knees. Gaara got up soon though, and for the first time this match, he made a handsign, one single handsign. The sand surrounded him and began to shape into a ball of hardened sand. Sasuke saw this and rushed to stop him, but his fist simply met solid sand. Not only that, but that whole side of the sand sphere shaped into large spikes that jutted out all at once. Sasuke froze for a moment as he realized how close he was to being skewered. He then jumped away and looked down at the blood on his face and the bloody knuckles he had. Backing away caused the spikes to retreat, making the sand into a perfect sphere again.

Another small portion of sand gathered above the sphere and became a… floating eye?

Suddenly Shin began breathing heavily as he felt something inside the sphere. He began shaking and growling as he was fighting a sudden urge his body had. Not even so much an urge, as it was a _need_ to kill whatever was in there.

Sasuke, having no other option left besides 'testing the water' so to speak, he rushed the sphere of sand. He threw three kunai at it before jumping over it. The three kunai bounced off as if they had clashed with steel while Sasuke ran at the sand from the other side. Large sand spikes jutted out, trying to stab him, but he weaved between them all and backhanded the sand. His attack had no effect so he quickly jumped away.

He was surprised to see the spikes continue to grow towards him but he recovered quickly and jumped to the side before running past the sphere. Tried to anyway, he was forced to jump and multi-flip backwards as the spikes continued to assault him. He jumped over the spikes and jump kicked the top of the sphere before jumping away as spikes jutted out from the area he just kicked. He got a good distance away from the sand and it returned to its perfect sphere shape. He wasn't really surprised that all that didn't work.

Suddenly, Sasuke backflipped towards the wall, and then slid up the wall _backwards_ before coming to a stop near the top. He heard growling and looked to his right and saw Shin, sitting on top of the wall, growling. "H-how long have you been there!?" Sasuke asked.

Sasuke was shocked as he saw Shin glare at him while a white mist was flowing off of him. "You are going to _kill_ whatever the fuck is in there, or I will destroy it myself!" Shin growled out. He seemed to be fighting something, holding back from performing some action.

"I intend too." Sasuke said before getting his Jutsu ready. He found that a bit hard to do as Shin kept muttering 'evil' under is breathe while growling. He performed his handsigns, gripped his left wrist, and held his left hand out in front of him as he began building up chakra into it. Suddenly, lightning started building up in his hand. He started running down the wall, gaining speed as he went. He hit the ground running and charged the sand sphere.

The sand spikes attacked again, but Sasuke easily weaved between them and struck the sand sphere, shouting "Chidori!"

Shin didn't stop shaking though. He could tell the blow hadn't killed _that thing._ He could still sense evil. Something inside him was trying to act on his own. 'I need to kill it… I need to kill it!'

The silence was unbearable for nearly everyone watching, but what broke the silence made even Shin pause.

Gaara screamed.

" _BLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! IT'S MY BLOOOOOOOOOD!"_

Sasuke's eyes widened as he realized his arm was stuck. He tried to pull it out, then let out a shout of power as he activated Chidori again, but his shout was soon muted by Gaara' scream of pain. He finally was able to wretch his arm free, but another arm came with it. A large clawed arm that was the color of sand, but looked like real flesh. The arm fell on the ground before retreating back into the sand sphere.

Shin's eyes were fully wide, and his Aura was flowing from him more and more. He suddenly became completely still.

'Evil… EVIL!'

Sasuke looked inside the hole he made, from a safe distance away. He saw something move inside, then he saw a terrifying eye look back at him before a massive animal roar came through.

Shin's Aura exploded out of him, wings of Aura forming behind him as he let out a cat-like hiss. 'EVIL!' He suddenly ran down the wall at full speed. 'KILL! KILL! KILL!' He hit the ground running even faster than Sasuke did, a blinding light coming from his right hand as he put all his Aura into his hand. 'DEMON! MUST KILL IT! MUST DESTORY IT!'

Suddenly the sand sphere turned back into normal sand and collapsed, while Shin's eyes widened and his Aura attack faded away before he fell flat on his face. He stood up and started looking around frantically. 'Where is it!? Where is it!? I don't sense it! Is it hiding from me!?' The sand fully collapsed and Gaara was seen standing, but breathing heavily. His left arm was down and his right hand was holding the bleeding wound in his left shoulder.

As Shin's mind cleared, his emotion sense was giving him strange info. He looked up at the stands and his eyes glowed white. 'Genjutsu! Everyone's falling asleep!' An explosion went off where the Hokage and Kazekage were at before leaf Anbu dashed up to assist. As chaos began up there, ninja hiding among the citizens jumped out and started attacking Kakashi and the other leaf ninja who were in the stands. Sakura was the only young leaf ninja still awake.

Shin's eyes widened even more as he felt emotions at the edge of his emotion sense, which reached the edge of the village. 'Oh shit! We're under attack!' He realized. He quickly dashed over to Kakashi, the only person he could think of to give his intel. "Kakashi!"

Kakashi looked over to who called him. "Shin! Why did you try to kill Gaara just a minute ago!?" He asked before deflecting a kunai from another ninja from the Hidden Sound Village.

"No time to explain! There are a whole bunch of ninja that just entered the village!" Shin shouted.

"What!? Dammit!" Kakashi cursed before dodging another attack and kicking the ninja away from him. He looked over Shin and saw Sasuke chase after Gaara, Kankuro, and Temari, who ran away from the arena. "Alright! We can handle things here! You need to protect the Hokage!" Suddenly Shin froze and fell on his hands and knees, shivering in fear. "What is it?"

"No… no… no… it can't be him! It can't be him! He isn't here! He isn't here!" Shin cried out like a fearful child.

An enemy ninja saw Shin as a vulnerable target and attacked him. Kakashi jumped in front of the attack and deflected it before killing that ninja. "Shin! Get a hold of yourself!" He yelled, gripping Shin by the shoulders and shaking him, Shin still looked afraid. He remembered something he had learned about the young man and slapped him across the face.

Shin was still for a few more seconds before he growled in anger. 'He gets angry whenever he feels pain, that should clear his head.' "Shin! Focus!"

Suddenly Shin shot up and shoved him away before creating his Aura bow and pointing it at the horizon. "I have to kill him!" He shouted.

"What?! Wait!" Kakashi shouted before the Faunus disappeared.

He appeared high in the sky, outside the city, directly above what he sensed. He looked down as gravity started to kick in and he saw something tear through the trees as fast as Shin could go. He saw it was heading away from the village and towards the mountains, so he created his Aura bow and fired it at the horizon again.

Now that he was incredibly far from the village, he began falling. He landed just before the thing that was running away reached the clearing in the forest that he was in, two mountains looming behind the Faunus.

It stopped on a dime before him and chuckled. "Yep. Just as I expected, AJ. You were afraid, you didn't want me to be here. But then it occurred to you what you could do with me, and you cut me off so fast it's not even funny."

Red eyes, black hair, red cloak, red claws, red fur. Shin's evil double. The scars all over his face are new though.

He grinned a sharp-toothed grin as Shin glared at him. "Oh, right. Orochimaru's spies said your name is 'Shin'. What a silly name. I'm sure you're super interested in knowing my name, right?"

"…"

"I'll tell you anyway. It's Tenshi."

Shin's eyes widened in anger before he glared again. "Tenshi? No. Your name can't be Tenshi! Your name here is Akuma!"

Akuma simply smirked in amusement. "What's the matter? Why can't my name be angel?"

"YOU KNOW DAMN WELL WHY!" Shin shouted as his Aura flared before he moved so fast he basically blinked in front of Akuma, sword already mid swing. Akuma's black Aura flared up and he was able to bring his (identical, except its light red) sword up before the attack even hit him. The collision of swords created a powerful shockwave that shook the trees around the clearing.

Akuma smirked while Shin glared at him. "So, what _do_ you intend to do?"

"I'm gonna beat you down… until you give in and _take me back to her!_ " Shin screamed before breaking the sword lock and then clashing his sword against Akuma's again.

* * *

 **So… if I do this right, we have a decent sized fight scene ahead of us. I'm gonna have to stop here. I wish I could give you guys more after taking so long, but at the same time I don't want to take any longer to get a chapter out.**

 **I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and I hope you all have a great week!**

 **Don't forget to follow and/or fav if you did like this! Every email I get about a follow or fav makes me feel a bit better about myself for a little bit, and I just really appreciate it! It keeps me going! Feel free to review or PM me if you want, just… you know… don't be a jerk. Also don't bother telling me everything I did wrong with this like some people feel the need to do, cause I am not going to read the message, or change how I write. I like the way I write.**


	7. And An Old Enemy

**How about this? To make it up to you guys for taking so much longer than I intended with that last chapter, I'm going to have the fight scene as a chapter itself, and post it much earlier than normal! Sound cool? Alright!**

 **Enjoy.**

* * *

Tortured Soul Ch.7

* * *

 _As my fingers trace the scar of this frozen bond_

AJ is shown walking along the edge of a forest at night, he doesn't have his cloak and touches two scars running down the left side of his face. He looks distant and lonely as he slowly walks along the path and stares at the ground in thought.

 _Deep within the crevice tearing my broken heart_

He shuts his eyes tight as tears fall out of them and he sobs quietly.

 _My body is wondering on…_

 _All my thoughts evaporate into shapeless dark_

He opens his eyes and a few tears continue to fall but now he looks very angry as he grits his teeth and glares up at the camera.

 _Faded like the past decays in a memory_

His eyes turn red and his teeth grow sharp. He turns back to normal as he suddenly snaps his head in the direction of the forest and catches a glimpse of someone that looked like Blake.

 _Now I search for an illusion_

He runs frantically through the forest looking in every direction for her and eventually comes to a small clearing and falls to his knees and cries again. He keeps his mouth shut tight gritting his teeth together, he also keeps his eyes shut tight but once again tears get through.

 _I will try to wield power over destiny…_

 _In the world that shined for me_

White Aura blasted out of him and he stood up and rushed further into the forest still frantically searching.

 _My memories live on_

He thought about teams RWBY and JNPR and the things they had done together.

 _Forgotten dreams call out_

He stopped for a moment and looked around.

 _To stars that I once wished upon_

He smiled as he looked up at the stars through a hole in the canopy of trees, before rushing out again.

 _Now I see the scenery_

He continued to run but now tears ran down his face as he ran.

 _Distilled inside my mind_

 _That never ending night_

Scene of him crying in his sleep.

 _And days stretch forever_

Scene of him walking around the village looking distant.

 _Though we're far apart, you are still in my heart_

He thought about Blake again and ran faster.

 _And no mere separation_

He let out another burst of Aura and went into his second stage where his Aura took the form of see though wings behind him.

 _Will stop this light from reaching you_

Blake was visited by a white light in her dream back on Remnant.

 _A miracle_

AJ jumped out into another clearing and looked at the camera. He started building up Aura into his right hand, so much it was a light show of bright white mist so bright it actually is blinding.

 _Will finally come true_

He charged at the viewer with his lightshow of a punch.

Change scene and camera looks at a Naruto in nine tails mode covered in red chakra.

Camera turns to the Sasuke in his second stage curse mark.

Camera turns again to see AJ glaring at the two before charging at them as we hit the static part of the song they charge at each other and the screen goes black.

Tortured Soul, A multiverse Fanfiction

* * *

 **For the whole fight scene, play "Frame of Mind" by "Tristam & Braken". Don't worry, no lyrics, just enjoy the combat music. Also, there is a video on youtube that has the piano cover (done by Jonah Wei-Haas) playing alongside the original. I suggest that video over the original song alone… I say while listening to the normal version. I'll shut up now.**

Right after their swords clashed once again, Akuma shoved Shin away with his free hand. He didn't shove him that hard, but it was enough to send him flying into a tree. Akuma smiled as he looked over at Shin while he slowly stood up.

"Take you back to her?" Akuma asked, amused. "Do you not remember?" He created a figure of Blake out of Aura. " **She's dead.** " He said demonically while casually slitting the image's throat before making it fade away. "What a shame."

Shin simply stared at him. "You know what? I don't believe you. I think you're just saying that to get me all riled up. Now… if we go back there and I find out she _is_ dead…" He chuckled. "There will be no force in this multiverse that will ever stop the _eternal agony I will bring upon you!_ " He growled out before charging with his sword ready.

Akuma deflected the sword to his right with his own before tripping Shin with his foot and sending him flying behind him with an elbow to the gut. Shin landed in a roll before he quickly dashed at his double again. Akuma's eyes widened as Shin moved faster than he expected and slashed him across the chest. "Agh!" Akuma growled out in anger before responding with his own blade. A white mist and a black mist began dashing around the clearing at very high speeds, metal clashing each time they met.

One of the times they rushed each other, their swords didn't clash, as Akuma had ducked under the horizontal swing. He brought his knee into Shin's gut hard, making him nearly double over in pain. He then uppercut Shin with his free hand and sent him high into the sky. Akuma jumped up to meet him and grabbed him by his ankles before throwing him towards the ground.

Shin came to a near instant stop as he landed on a glyph just above the ground. The glyph acted like a spring and Shin had just enough time to look up and glare at his opponent in the sky before being launched towards him. Akuma smirked back at him and let out a pulse of black Aura behind him, which sent him flying down to meet his opponent. They both pulled their fists back as they approached, and when they did they swung, aiming for the face. Akuma tilted his head to the side slightly and avoided Shin's attack. His attack however made contact with Shin's face and sent him sailing back towards the ground. Shin landed on his back so hard he cracked the ground, then Akuma crashed down on his stomach, making the cracks wider and generally putting a dent in the center of the clearing.

"You don't believe me, that's fine." Akuma said as he smirked down at his double. "You don't have to believe me. You'll be dead soon enough." Just for a moment, a white clone of Shin appeared behind Akuma. The Aura clone punched Akuma off of Shin, allowing him to get up while the clone vanished.

"No. I won't be the one dying." Shin said weakly before shrugging off the pain that his Aura was finally taking care of. "I have to get back to her. I know I can now, since you're here. And since I can, I _have to_."

"How did you know I can get you back?" Akuma asked, smirking again.

"The stupid angel sent me here, and yet you're here too, still trying to kill me. You obviously can travel between worlds. Right?" Shin reasoned.

"Heh. You really have no idea what happened, do you?" Akuma asked rhetorically.

"Care to enlighten me?" Shin asked with a smirk of his own.

"Nope. Like I said, you'll be dead soon enough." Akuma answered simply before launching himself at Shin.

Shin imagined that Blake was behind him. He was an obstacle, and if he could get over it, defeat it, he could get back to her. It was the boost he needed. Just as Akuma's sword should have met him, he appeared to his side before slamming his knee into his foe's chin. Akuma fell over, so Shin fired a few Energy blasts into him while he was down before grabbing him by his ankles. He began spinning around, but Akuma fired a red Energy blast into his chest, making him let go early and throw him into the forest.

He may not have been able to see where his opponent was hiding in the forest, but he could still sense exactly where he was. "Auric Art: Fatal Feathers Jutsu!" He shouted before throwing six white feathers into the forest, each one tearing a hole in every tree that got in its way. Akuma's response was a few kunai, which Shin dodged. "I can sense where you are! Stop hiding, this is pointless!" There was no response. "Fine then!"

He jumped towards the back half of the dented clearing before crouching in a stable archer stance and created his Aura bow. Once he built up a sufficient amount of Aura into his left hand, he pointed two fingers forward, creating a very small glyph just in front of the Aura arrow. He then put Aura into his left eye, creating his glyph on it. This allowed him to see the souls of all sentient beings…

… even through objects.

Now knowing the _exact_ position of his target, he let the arrow fly, pushing the air out of the way as it flew at blinding speeds. Not its normal speed-of-light speed, mind you, but still really fast. He felt some strange need to shout "BANISH!" as he let the powerful arrow fly. The arrow went right through every tree in its way without slowing down in any way, leaving two small holes in each of them. Akuma's eyes widened as he realized what was coming and moved out of its way… too late. He stood in shock as he quickly used his Aura to heal the two holes in his shoulder.

'It went right through my Aura… what kind of attack was that!?' Now angered, Akuma increased the amount of black Aura that was flowing from him till it began to take the shape of sharp, black wings on his back. He then appeared in the air, mid punch in front of Shin, who tried to raise his Aura while simultaneously blocking the attack with his arms. It took all of his current strength to stop the attack, but all the energy of the attack had to go somewhere. The shockwave that shot out tore apart the trees nearby, making the clearing about twice as large as it was originally.

Akuma's feet touched the ground as he prepared another punch, while Shin's arms were hanging at his sides. They had gone so numb from blocking such a powerful punch that he couldn't feel them. 'This is gonna fucking su-' Shin's own thoughts were interrupted as he was sent flying into the other side of the clearing. He went right through any tree that he flew into, and quickly reached the end of the forest before slamming into the side of a mountain. He managed to clear his head just in time to tilt it to the side before Akuma's fist slammed into where it just was, decimating the stone wall behind him. He quickly kicked a falling rock into Akuma's face before jumping past him to get some distance from him.

Akuma turned around and glared at Shin. "You still have Aura, huh?" Shin's response was to increase his Aura output till he had Aura wings that were white, but equally sharp, and equally useless. They were just Aura, they couldn't be used as wings, or as weapons, they were just Aura acting on its own and taking a form. "Heh. Still determined I see. But you aren't protecting her this time, you're trying to get back to her." He said and smirked in a mocking way. "You are so ridiculous, you know that? Always fighting for _her_! Always doing everything for _her_! Even if she isn't here! **Even if she's dead!** You just keep being stupid and cliché! I mean really!? 'I fight for my girlfriend because I love her and want to protect her!' How much more cliché can you get!?"

Shin appeared in front of him and swung with his right hand balled in a fist, so Akuma blocked the attack with his left wrist, creating a not-so-small shockwave. "Oh wait! It's worse, isn't it!?" Akuma asked with a grin. He used his right hand to deflect another attack, creating another shockwave that cracked the ground around them. "It's not just her, it's your friends too, right!?" Shin tried to jump kick him, and he raised his left leg to block it. "Because you 'love your friends'!?" Shin pushed off his leg to spin and tried to kick with his left leg. Akuma blocked the kick with his right hand before grabbing his ankle. "Because you'll 'do anything to be with them all'!?"

He spun and threw Shin behind him and into the broken side of the mountain. "Because you 'can't live without them'!?" He started walking forward as Shin weakly stood up. "Because you can't live without _her_!?" Akuma swung with his left and Shin caught his opponent's fist in his right hand and glared hard at Akuma. The evil double simply smiled defiantly back. "Still filled with determination by the thought of them, aren't ya? Well I don't have any stupid cliché thoughts in _my_ head, I just have to kill you and then I'm done!" He punched with his right, building up enough Aura to cause the black glow coming from his iris's to appear around his fist as well. Shin simply caught his fist with his other hand, the shockwave breaking more of the wall behind them and deepening the cave they had been making.

Shin drained away the Energy in his arms, allowing him to activate the ice Dust inside his wrist guards. He froze both of Akuma's arms before punching him away with a massive fist of ice. He then struck the ground with both hands, covering the ground and the walls with ice. He looked up and smirked at Akuma. Suddenly something slashed Akuma's side, and he looked behind him to see that Shin was now standing behind him with a spear of ice. He then turned the spear into two swords of ice identical to his real sword before disappearing.

He moved fast before, but the speed he moved while gliding on the ice was something that Akuma could barely follow. Because of that, he was getting slashed left and right. He broke the ice off his arms and tried firing Energy blasts to destroy the ice, but it just grew back. The ice suddenly grew where he was standing, and he jumped out of the way before the ice spikes stabbed him. The ice then kept growing wherever he was standing, forcing him to dodge and leaving him open to a sudden attack by an enemy moving too fast for him to see. Suddenly, Shin appeared in front of him, looking down at his wrists and noticing the lack of ice Dust. "You fucked up." Akuma said with a smirk before punching him back into the cave.

"You can't have much Aura left." Akuma said before chuckling evilly. " **Soon.** " A whirlwind of flame came flying out of the cave, forcing him to jump out of the way as Shin slowly stepped out of the cave, flames flowing from his hands. "You must have more Aura than I thought if you're using both fire Dust crystals this much." Akuma commented.

Rather than firing Energy blasts from his hands, Shin now started shooting fireballs at his opponent. Akuma was able to dodge the first few, but a misstep resulted in a few fireballs hitting him. He simply dusted himself off. "Heh. I still have a lot more Aura than you. You are your stupid determination… You just don't get it. You just don't stop. Even when I'm far more powerful than you, you just keep trying. **Because you just** _ **have**_ **to get back her, don't you? Well, let me tell you, let me show you, why I'm stronger than you!** " The black mist started to grow around him as he floated into the sky. " **I'm stronger than you because I rely on real power, not simply being determined to protect or get back to 'the ones I love'!** " The black mist grew till it blotted out the sky before suddenly falling into him. The Aura wings on his back vanished, and were replaced with real, smooth, black angel wings. Shin's two scars burned briefly, as if they remembered.

He closed his eyes as he flew in place above the mountains. He then activated the rest of the black Aura he had built up, activating the mark on his neck. The curse mark grew and spread, until there were black marks all over his body and his face, all of them looking just like feathers. He opened his eyes as he felt the power flowing through him. " **Let's see what good your determination is against this!** "

Shin couldn't help but feel fear as he looked up at his evil double and felt the power coming from him. 'There's no doubt about it, I have little Aura left and Akuma's maximum power is definitely greater than mine…. But I have no choice. I am finally able to picture her face without crying… I finally have a way to get back to her. I have to get back to her!

I HAVE TO GET BACK TO THEM ALL!'

"Well, no time for messing around!" Shin said to himself as he prepared his Aura. His eyes widened. 'I don't have enough Aura to do that! Well… shit. I guess I'll just have to go for my second best.' "No time for fire Dust I guess." He said with a humorless chuckle as he cycled over to lighting Dust on both his wrist guards. With wings of lighting-like Aura, and lighting shooting from his wrists, he jumped high into the sky to meet his double. He reached the height of his double and he glared at Akuma, who simply smiled back evilly. Shin moved so fast it was like he became a streak of lighting as he dashed at Akuma.

Akuma simply leaned out of the way, but when he turned around he saw Shin was already about to jump off a glyph to attack again. The second streak slashed his shoulder as he leaned away once again. He flew over the third streak, but as he flew higher, Shin simply jumped off of glyphs to chase him down. He continued to fly all around the area, but Shin was dashing around him every second, constantly trying to get a hit in, and quite a few times he did. He was moving so fast and so often that the (now electrified) feathers he was leaving behind as he moved were making it hard to see. "What is this!? I have all this power! I should be winning right now!" Akuma got tired of running and put up with a few more electrified slashes and punches before he grabbed Shin's arm and threw him down onto the mountain on the left.

Shin quickly got up and started shooting lightning bolts up at his winged opponent. Akuma dodged the attacks and started firing powerful red Energy blasts in response. Blue and red were fired back and forth and the mountain Shin was on was starting to get shorter and shorter. Shin changed up tactics and started jumping between the two adjacent mountains as he attacked. Akuma could do little about dodging lighting, but Shin was also running out of mountain to hide behind.

The once great mountains had been reduced to half their size by this point, and the fact that Shin was landing far more hits made Akuma think, for just a moment, that maybe determination really was actual power that actually could help you fight. He threw the thought out as quickly as he could, there was no way his determination to see his friends was keeping him alive!

"Would you just GIVE UP!?" Akuma shouted angrily. "I told you, she's dead already!"

"I don't believe you!" Shin shouted back before dodging another blast.

"Even if you did win this fight, you will find out she's dead and that this whole fight was pointless! All your determination will have meant nothing!" Akuma said.

"No! You need to be killed anyway!" Shin countered tiredly. "And once you take me back to her, I will!"

Akuma shouted in anger and frustration. "AGH! ENOUGH!" He created a bow of his black Aura and put more than half of his remaining Aura reserves into it.

Shin noticed this and started creating a bow of lighting and using most of his Aura to create a powerful arrow.

"WOULD YOU JU **ST DIE ALREADY YOU SON OF A BITCH!?** " Akuma screamed before letting loose his arrow. Shin shouted at the top of his lungs as he fired his own arrow as well. The arrows clashed, creating a pure white explosion that rapidly expanded. The explosion reduced the mountains and all the trees around them to literally nothing, and it would have done the same to them if it wasn't for their Aura.

They eventually woke up, both managed to weakly stand, and saw each other in the distance. They both then looked up as it started raining.

"Holy shit… I've… I've never felt so weak before…" Shin said to himself weakly. "I… I have no Aura… none at all…"

"Really? Shame… I still have juuust a bit left. Just enough to finally kill you." Akuma said before he started running at him and building his Aura into his red sword.

Neko appeared at Shin's feet. "We don't much time! It's time for Spirit to fight! You ready!?"

"I… I don't know… just fucking do it before he gets here..." Shin answered slowly. Neko disappeared and he soon felt the shift that he had grown quite familiar with in the past month. He opened his blue eyes in surprise. 'Whoa… I don't feel as weak as before! I'm still really weak, but I feel like I can actually move now!'

"Huh? Your ears and tail are glowing blue now? That's new! Neat trick! **NOW DIE**!" Akuma shouted before swinging his sword downward.

Shin saw things move in slow motion as he raised his left arm to block the sword. The blade made contact with his wrist guard and slid to the side, throwing Akuma off balance. He slashed Akuma across the chest with his right claws, then with his left. He then flashed through handsigns in an instant. "Fire Style: Fire Ball Jutsu!" Akuma cried out in pain as he was engulfed in flames and his Aura was shattered.

Akuma collapsed on his back and looked up at Shin weakly. "*Pant* *Pant* You… actually bothered learning Ninjutsu?... Heh… I guess… I did learn one or two as well…" He slowly stood up and glared at Shin, who was reaching for some kunai knives. "You are so annoying… Why don't you just die already?..."

Shin pulled out the knives and smirked weakly at him. "I would tell you, but I know you don't like cliché's like 'Because I fight for someone precious to me', so I won't bother."

Shin threw four kunai at Akuma at once, and the red eyed demon jumped to the side to dodge them. Shin quickly rushed him with two more kunai in his hands and Akuma was just barely able to get two kunai of his own out before his opponent reached him. They briefly danced around each other, kunai clashing every second. Soon though, Akuma grew even more frustrated and began going on the offensive. Shin bobbed and weaved between multiple stabs before he slashed at his opponent's face.

Akuma leaned away from the swipe. "What!? Trying to add another scar to my face, huh!?" He asked angrily before attempting another barrage of stabs. Once again Shin gracefully danced between the attacks with an unusual sparkle of excitement in his blue eyes. Akuma finished the barrage with a stab aimed right at his opponent's face. Shin leaned out of the way, but failed to do so fast enough and got a cut on his cheek. Despite being excited about reaching his goal, he decided it was best to get some distance and began running for the tree line.

Akuma chased him all the way to the forest, and tried to throw a trio of kunai knives into Shin's back just before he reached the trees. Shin jumped past the tree and grabbed onto it as he went by, making him loop behind it as the kunai stuck into it. He then jumped off the tree towards another at the edge of the tree line while throwing another group of kunai. Akuma rolled out of the way before angrily throwing a few shuriken. Shin ducked behind another tree to avoid them before jumping out and throwing his own shuriken.

Avoiding the shuriken, Akuma once again threw a few ninja tools at his opponent, who predictably moved behind a tree to avoid them. This was what he wanted. He threw a few kunai into the tree Shin was hiding behind, and the Faunus from Earth's eyes widened as he heard the obvious sound of a paper bomb about to go off. He jumped away just as the explosive papers destroyed the tree, blowing him away and battering him with sharp pieces of wood. His back slammed against a tree and he collapsed. He shook his head and looked up just in time to see the shuriken about to hit him. He quickly pulled out and threw his own shuriken, and they were able to counter most of the attacks mid-air, but a few of them got through and he raised his arms to protect his face.

Most of the shuriken simply cut his arms up, but two of them stuck into his arms, and he had no choice but to pull them out, which hurt, like a bitch. He looked up again and saw Akuma walking towards him, smiling. "Can we stop with his ninja shit? I'm not very good at it and never really cared for it." He whined more than asked.

Shin answered anyway, though he didn't answer with words in the way you normally would. "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" He shouted after performing only a few handsigns. The rain that was falling around them gathered around them until it formed a dragon of water that was swirling around Akuma. The dragon basically scooped up the demon before slamming him into the ground, nearly drowning him.

Akuma coughed up some water before he stood up and saw Shin was smirking up at him despite how weak he looked. "Alright, fine! Striking Shadow Snake!" Akuma yelled while holding his arm towards his opponent. A trio of snakes came out of his sleeve and attacked. Shin, not expecting the attack, panicked and tried to cut them up with his claws, but they all weaved around his attacks and bit into his neck, arm, and leg.

"AGH! Get the fuck off me!" Shin cried out. Now that the snakes weren't moving, he was able to cut them in half with his claws before getting up and jumping into the forest. Akuma smirked before chasing after him. He began firing red Energy blasts as they both jumped from tree to tree. Every tree that got hit was blown up by the Energy blasts, and Shin was really starting to get scared. "Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Five clones appeared and tried to cut off Akuma.

Akuma simply smirked. "Get out of my way." He said before charging right through the group of clones, destroying one of them. He then created a few clones of his own to keep the clones from slowing him down while he chased down the real Shin. Soon he caught up and began firing off Energy blasts again. One of his shots hit Shin right in the back while he was mid-air. Shin quickly got up and looked back fearfully before he started running again.

"Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!" Suddenly a massive barrage of small fireballs started pouring through the forest towards Akuma. He took one to the chest and it knocked him onto his back as the rest either flew over him or set the rest of the forest on fire. 'I must be weaker than I thought if such a small hit knocked me down like that.' He thought as he got up and looked around at all the fire and smoke. It would have made it hard to follow Shin, if he couldn't sense him. He could sense the angelic energy, and it made him sick.

He eventually found Shin in a small clearing, with his prey sitting against the tree in the middle of it. He walked into the clearing slowly and smiled evilly. His smile turned to a look of confusion as he saw Shin smirk weakly and make a handsign. He heard two paper bombs behind him activate before they detonated and blew him into the clearing. Shin's arms fell to his side and he began breathing heavily while Akuma struggled to get up.

"Well… that was a great use of the last of my chakra…" Shin said weakly. He was battered, bruised, and bleeding. Akuma found it very hard to stand up, but he forced himself to do so, for this was the end. "I can't believe it… I finally had a way to get back to her… and I failed…" Tears started flowing down his face. "I really will never see her again… I'll never see any of them again… I failed… I'm still a miserable failure after all this time."

"Do you finally get it?" Akuma asked with a grin. "Do you finally get that your determination means nothing? It isn't real power. Once you run out of real power, you have nothing. No determination will ever change that. Heh. I'll admit, you gave me much more of a fight than I thought you would, but you still lost."

"*Sniffle* Just kill me already…"

"What's the matter, AJ? What happened to all your determination?" Akuma asked mockingly. "…You _do_ actually get it, don't you? Fighting for your friends doesn't make you win, fighting to get back to her doesn't make you strong! Be determined all you want, it won't let you defeat someone who is stronger than you!" He unsheathed his sword and pointed it at Shin. " **NOW DI** -"

Suddenly, Shin shot up and stabbed him in the gut with a kunai. He smirked as he whispered in Akuma's ear. "Sorry for interrupting you… I just thought I should leave you with the appropriate parting gift… A 'thank you' for taking her away from me…oh… and for calling me AJ." He then jerked his body to the side and pulled the kunai with him, dragging it along Akuma's body and spilling the demon's blood all over the grass. He collapsed on the ground, his body no longer responding to anything he wanted it to do. No Chakra, no Aura, and the power it took to stab him just now… frankly he was surprised he managed to do it… he had no energy left now… none at all.

"GRAAAAAGH!" Akuma cried out in agony and tried to hold in the blood. He started to try and see if chakra could be used to heal wounds. 'No! This is my chance! He's vulnerable! I can finally kill him! It won't matter if I die!' He stopped wasting chakra and instead held out his arms in front of him weakly, focusing all his chakra into his hands. His curse mark reacted to his wishes and gave him just a bit of his Aura back to use in this attack. "Demonic Art: Angel Buster! **SEE YOU IN HELL!** " The Aura changed his chakra, making it into a black mass in front of him. The mass then fired outward as a large black laser.

Shin saw the attack coming and just closed his eyes, accepting his destiny. Suddenly, something in him took action. Not his Aura, not his Chakra, not either of the wolves in his head, not Neko, not Spirit. The tears that flowed down his face became tainted with his own blood as it began to leak out of his right eye. His eyes suddenly forced themselves open on their own and a glyph appeared on his eye, but for the first time ever, it was not on his left eye, but his right. A white spherical force field surrounded him and protected him from all harm.

When the dust cleared and the tree, as well as everything a half-mile behind it, was destroyed, Akuma saw the force field that surrounded Shin. "W…What?..." Akuma asked in shock. Suddenly an overwhelming pain assaulted his neck. This was the price he paid for taking Aura back out of his curse mark. He had only taken out a small amount, an incredibly small amount, and yet the pain was greater than the massive bloody wound that went from his gut to his left side. He would have been surprised his guts hadn't fallen out, if he hadn't passed out in agony from the pain of the curse mark.

Both the angel boy and the demon lay unconscious on the ground, no chakra, no Aura, devoid of any energy.

* * *

Akuma woke up in nearly as much agony as when he passed out. There was so little light in the room he was in, only a small candle was there to cast away the darkness.

"Hmm… how very disappointing." Said a young man with grey hair and glasses.

Akuma was in too much pain to speak.

"You are very fortunate, you know that? I could have left you there… but if you failed to kill the angel boy, than he can still be a danger to Lord Orochimaru's plans… and you would be the best person in this world to fight them if they interfered, despite current evidence pointing against that." He smirked as he saw Akuma glare at him. "I find it almost amusing that a demon such as you could make such a mess… so much blood. You're just like him, aren't you? _Part_ demon, _part_ angel, neither of you are immortal beings."

"Don't… mock… me…" Akuma said weakly as he saw Kabuto was now standing over him.

"I am amazed at how much damage you two did to each other… For you both to be completely out of all forms of energy and power… I wish I could have seen the fight. You will recover, eventually… I stopped the bleeding. When you do fully recover, you will most certainly have to train more, and we will have to do some more experiments on your curse mark as well… we can't afford to have you fail the next time you two meet." Kabuto said.

"Shut up… Kabuto… I'll kill you…" Akuma growled out weakly.

'Twice in one day I receive that threat? Must be a new record.' "Oh I don't think you'll be able to do much of anything for quite a long time, not in your condition." Kabuto said with a smirk as he pushed up his glasses. "Besides, even if you did kill me when you recovered, Lord Orochimaru would not be happy about you killing his right hand man. You wouldn't get any more help from him. You wouldn't be able to unlock the full power of your Auric Curse Mark, and then you wouldn't be able to win the next time you fight Shin."

"What… makes you think… I can't beat him the next… time?" Akuma asked angrily. "You think his determination… would help him?"

"Of course not." Kabuto answered. "But he will be sure to train himself, he will be stronger the next time you fight him. You nearly died even with the help of the curse mark. You need its full power to make sure you can kill him the next time. Orochimaru is disappointed in your failure, so you truly _need_ to kill him the next time, or you will not like the consequences."

* * *

Shin opened his eyes slowly.

"You're awake, finally." Kakashi commented casually.

Shin looked to his left and saw Kakashi leaning against the wall near the door out of the hospital room. "Ka… Kakashi?"

"Try to stay relaxed, alright? You've been in a coma for awhile, so there is no immediate threat anymore." Kakashi said calmly.

"Am… am I really still alive?" Shin asked. Kakashi nodded. "*Sigh* I'm not sure if I like that or not…"

"Well I'm thankful. When I found you, you were slowly dying next to a pool of blood." Kakashi explained. "That wound on your neck had been especially worrying, but it was all taken care of."

Shin's eyes widened slightly. "So he wasn't there… He's not dead… I'm not dead… Well, I guess I still have a chance to get back."

"If you aren't too tired, could you explain to me what happened?" Kakashi requested politely.

"Well… I thought if I beat my evil double I could make him take me back home… back to Remnant…" Shin started slowly.

"Wait, your evil double is in our world!?" Kakashi asked, surprised.

"I had no idea he was here till I sensed him. I almost beat him, or at least, I thought I was going to… if I just tried hard enough…" The Faunus said tiredly. "But then I realized he was stronger than me, and I thought he was going to kill me. If I just get stronger, I can beat him the next time."

"S-Shin… I'm not sure how you're going to do that." Kakashi said hesitantly.

"Why not? What happened?" Shin asked worryingly and Kakashi was hesitant to answer. "Hey! Why does everything look weird anyway!?" He asked again, fear clearly evident in his voice.

Kakashi slowly walked up to him and reached towards him slowly. He removed something from Shin's face, and only then did he realize that there were bandages on his right eye. Now that Kakashi removed those bandages, he pointed out over to the mirror on the wall to the left. Shin looked and saw that his right eye was clouded.

"I'm… I'm blind in my right eye? How did that happen?" Shin asked.

"I wish I knew." Kakashi answered sadly. "When I found you your eye had suffered severe damage. The medics have no idea how it was damaged, but one thing they know is that you'll never be able to see with that eye again."

Shin sank into the hospital bed. "H-How am I supposed to beat him now? *Sigh* Of course I'm not allowed to win… why did I let myself get so determined? Why did I get my hopes up?..."

Kakashi looked sad for a minute before his eye widened slightly. "Hey! Don't think you're out of the game just get!" Kakashi exclaimed. "I fight as well as I do and I often have one eye covered! I can train you to fight with just one eye!"

Shin's eyes were wide in awe. "T-Thank you, Kakashi Sensei!"

Knowing what he knew about Shin, Kakashi knew that that was basically the biggest thanks the young man could give. Seeing this, he hated to say what he had to say. "You know… many people died in that attack."

Shin was affected by Kakashi's sadness. "Yeah… I can only imagine a lot of people died… Did the civilians make it?"

"No Leaf Village citizen was injured in the attack, only our ninja." Kakashi answered.

"Well, that's good, at least." Shin said sadly. "So, who was it that died that was close to you?"

Kakashi just looked up at him, and Shin froze at the sad look in his eye. "None of those kids died… right?... So who-" His eyes widened as he felt something, something missing. There was an emptiness in his emotion sense. There was a spot that usually had a certain set of emotions in it, and there was no one in that room. "No." His voice faltered. "No… no he… he can't be…" Kakashi was internally shocked to see tears flowing freely down Shin's cheeks. "No… he can't die… that old man can't die… he- he can't leave everyone like that!" He brought his hands up to his face and tried to wipe away his tears.

Shin broke down and started crying out loud, and Kakashi hesitantly spoke. "I'm sorry… the Third Hokage died in battle."

* * *

 **Aaaaaaaaand we'll end it there! (Curse these old episodes for making me feel feelings…)**

 **Hope you enjoyed, and didn't hate the fight scene too much! XD But hey, both of them are still alive… so I guess things will just have to be settled with another fight someday...**

… **I wonder how much stronger they'll be by then?**

 **Have a great week everyone! I'll try not to take a month+ for the next full chapter!**


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